There Is Nothing That They Cannot Ruin

What a surprise.  When private equity firms buy hospitals, the quality of healthcare goes to sh%$.

There are more infections, more bedsores, more falls, though, interestingly enough, not more deaths.

If I had a guess, that last bit is from the PE firms adopting policies to get the very sick out the door as soon as possible, but that just my cynicism speaking:

The rate of serious medical complications increased in hospitals after they were purchased by private equity investment firms, according to a major study of the effects of such acquisitions on patient care in recent years.

The study, published in JAMA on Tuesday, found that, in the three years after a private equity fund bought a hospital, adverse events including surgical infections and bed sores rose by 25 percent among Medicare patients when compared with similar hospitals that were not bought by such investors. The researchers reported a nearly 38 percent increase in central line infections, a dangerous kind of infection that medical authorities say should never happen, and a 27 percent increase in falls by patients while staying in the hospital.

“We were not surprised there was a signal,” said Dr. Sneha Kannan, a health care researcher and physician at the division of pulmonary and critical care at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was the paper’s lead author. “I will say we were surprised at how strong it was.”

Although the researchers found a significant rise in medical errors, they also saw a slight decrease (of nearly 5 percent) in the rate of patients who died during their hospital stay. The researchers believe other changes, like a shift toward healthier patients admitted to the hospitals, could explain that decline. And by 30 days after patients were discharged, there was no significant difference in the death rates between hospitals.

The key quote from the JAMA study about the death rates is, "Medicare beneficiaries at private equity hospitals were modestly younger, less likely to have dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and transferred more to other acute care hospitals relative to control, likely reflecting a lower-risk population of admitted beneficiaries. This potentially explained a small relative reduction for in-hospital mortality that dissipated by 30 days after hospital discharge."

PE instituted aggressive cherry picking policies.  Hoocoodanode?

We need to change bankruptcy laws so that predatory entities like PE and hedge funds don't get to suck the marrow out a business, and walk away Scot free as that business descends into insolvency.

This is not essential investment, this is destructive speculation.