In Portland, Oregon a citywide electronic medical records project financially supported in part by the business community cannot be implemented because one of the primary savings it would facilitate, a major reduction in duplicate medical tests, is a significant source of hospital income. Hospitals do not want to lose the income they collect from performing those tests.
Throughout the nation private equity groups, not traded on stock exchanges and therefore not subject to mandatory public reporting of their activities, are buying nursing homes. Two consequences often result from such consolidations: The new owners cut costs, largely staff costs, with an almost inevitable decline in quality of care; they also organize themselves into such complex structures that it becomes almost impossible to identify and hold accountable the entities responsible for the injuries and deaths that often result from such cost-cutting, whether through regulation or litigation.
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