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nhbruh t1_ir9vo5o wrote

> The officials in New Hampshire have decided, at least until this point, that they are not going to make physicians malpractice settlements public, unlike in Massachusetts. So if Dr. Baribeau had practiced just over the line in Massachusetts, they make malpractice settlements as well as hospital disciplinary actions public on their website. So that does mean that in New Hampshire, patients and families are more in the dark.

Big yikes. But… here in NH I often hear that oversight is bad and transparency is the stuff you use to cover food platters. What gives?

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hardsoft t1_ir9zg11 wrote

Imagine if the government proposed a public tracking database for employee disciplinary action for every citizen?

Maybe we should just go full China and have a social credit score for everyone and encourage reporting others...

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HPenguinB t1_iraceh3 wrote

Wait, you think tracking a doctor's fuck ups is the same as china's social credit scores? Please tell me you are just trying to be silly.

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hardsoft t1_irappuc wrote

I'm saying why stop at doctor's. Why do you deserve and right to privacy. Let's have the government track everyone.

Or maybe the thought experiment is revealing it's a problem...

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HPenguinB t1_irb0swx wrote

I'm saying that's stupid. "Yelp exists, therefore all humans are government drones with microchips." "Car registration exist, therefore all children are in pizza hut basements for lizard people to eat."

It's not a thought experiment. It's libertarian nonsense. Like, I can't even imagine *you* take this seriously, because no one is that dumb.

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hardsoft t1_irbbi2t wrote

Exactly. The government should track and make publicly available lifetime employee disciplinary action for everybody.

You agree or you hate fire departments.

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HPenguinB t1_irc0rln wrote

>Exactly.

So you agree your argument is stupid? Bold move, Cotton. Let's see if this pays off.

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hardsoft t1_irc2jyf wrote

I'm not actually arguing we should have government track and make publicly available employer disciplinary actions for some people (just not me).

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nhbruh t1_ira0f3s wrote

You okay? Last we saw, you dove off the deep end and haven’t come up for air.

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hardsoft t1_irapbz9 wrote

Asks the person promoting government surveillance and reporting of workplace discipline on a public forum...

First they came for the doctors, and I didn't speak out because I'm not a doctor.

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nhbruh t1_irarjns wrote

This is an impressive level of cognitive dissonance and I applaud you for the work it took achieve it.

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hardsoft t1_irars2m wrote

Such as?

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nhbruh t1_irasdur wrote

Others have already called out the hysteria that is your other comments, no need for me to jump on that wagon now.

Pro tip: heavy duty aluminum foil is much more effective against those pesky gov’t brain reading space lasers than the regular stuff. Don’t even get me started on the store brands!

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hardsoft t1_irasrj2 wrote

So no examples of cognitive dissonance. Thanks.

Pro tip, when insulting others, try being accurate.

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Moon_King_ t1_irabeoc wrote

Well i dont have to worry about going into burger king for my routine or emergency number 5 with a medium coke and potentially having the burger maker kill me. If that sounds ridiculous its because it is and so are you.

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hardsoft t1_iraphos wrote

Yeah yeah. Privacy is important for you because you're not as important as a doctor or something.

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Moon_King_ t1_iraqf0l wrote

Ya because privacy shoould give a pass when murdering people because of incompetence.

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hardsoft t1_iraqpqr wrote

How did they write this article then?

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Moon_King_ t1_irarlmb wrote

With a computer? How the fuck would i know. Ask the author.

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hardsoft t1_iras72r wrote

Right. So we need the government to collect and post citizen's legal history on a site for people sophisticated to access but not sophisticated enough to use Google and search for themselves?

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Moon_King_ t1_iratu65 wrote

The government already collects your data. Surprise!

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hardsoft t1_irau1yg wrote

So you agree, why not more? And accessible by everyone.

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Moon_King_ t1_iravuh6 wrote

Believe it or not most information vollectes by the government is public information. Must be scary at night when everything is the boogie man.

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hardsoft t1_irbzwtt wrote

So why not more!? Who cares unless you have something to hide /s

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WhoWhatWhereWhenHowY t1_ira008z wrote

A bit over the top but a valid point.

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Mynewadventures t1_ira6kf7 wrote

I agree. It sounds hyperbolic, but there is such a loooooong history of policies and laws that are created in a knee jerk way that has terrible consequences a few decades down the road.

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ANewMachine615 t1_ira8yqj wrote

So how is a consumer supposed to make an informed choice about a health care provider, if arguably the most critical information - their rate of legally culpable fuckups - is hidden from them? Insurers, hospitals, doctors, etc. All have incentives to hide this. Only wronged patients, who lack power and coordination, have an incentive here - and one of the requirements for most settlements is confidentiality.

Does MA have a social credit system? Are they China? And yet they make this info public.

What an absurd concern.

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hardsoft t1_iraor1o wrote

The info is available (hence the article). Just not consolidated on a government site. Not to mention online reviews and such.

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vexingsilence t1_iraoncr wrote

This is a problem with settlements in general. There's often a public interest in the matter but the public is left in the dark. It can be medical, it can be police misconduct, it can be a homebuilder, anything. There can be instances where your town pays out a settlement which comes out of your property tax, but you don't even get to know the terms of the settlement. It's absurd.

Medical is worse in that doctors can't fix everything. Just because there was a negative outcome, doesn't mean there was malpractice involved. But people get lawyers involved and off it goes. The defendants may settle just to avoid the cost of dragging it through the courts. That doesn't mean they did anything wrong, it just means at minimum, it was more cost effective to do a payout than it was to put up a defense.

The uglier side of this is that if you're a patient needing a procedure that has a significant failure rate, even if you find the doctors and facility that has the best outcomes, they may decline to do the procedure because of the risk of litigation if it does go wrong. Been there, done that, not a good time.

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Mynewadventures t1_ira96mk wrote

I wasn't saying a solution isn't needed, and my concern is far from absurd.

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ANewMachine615 t1_iradocs wrote

A licensed professional whose job frequently involves cutting people open having some disclosure responsibilities when they screw up and harm others in legally liable ways, is nowhere near the slippery slope you want it to be.

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HPenguinB t1_iraco7k wrote

It really is absurd. I don't even care about this conversation, and suddenly "Yelp reviews leads to complete fascism," is hella absurd.

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External_Dimension71 t1_ir9stne wrote

Yikes.. have a friend who is a surgeon in NH. When I moved to the lakes region in 2012 I asked him where I should go if I needed medical help. He told me to drive down to MA.

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golfgrandslam t1_ira7qjx wrote

Dartmouth Hitchcock is good

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Spitfirefunsnack t1_ird58ue wrote

No, they are not. They are slowly crumbling from the inside. They can't hold on to staff, including doctors, and the new wing they are building will most likely be under equipped. People have a hard time even scheduling an appointment with them. If you do get one, it may get canceled at the last minute and rebooked months later. People from the Upper Velley will travel to Boston if possible. I worked there in a couple of departments, it sucks. I recently talked to a former co-worker from there and due to nepotism and poor decision making from the higher ups, it is progressively going down hill. To make matters worse, they take over other hospitals and turn them to crap too. I am glad you may have had good experiences with them, but it's not the norm.

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widget_fucker t1_irau2sl wrote

Worst record “in the nation over the last two decades”.

Everyone should actually read this article. Its much worse than the post’s title. Its quite shameful actually.

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throwawayada79 t1_iridywz wrote

Fubar

And yet a kid on a bike can run out in front of your car (not your fault by any means, kid survives with broken arm). And the Union Leader will blast your personal information in the paper.

Makes you wonder who got paid @ Union Leader.

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widget_fucker t1_irikxd7 wrote

Reminds me that big money and their lobbyists write most laws.

Everybody bitch about mass, at least they have laws that mandate transparency on this type of thing.

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pumpkinpatch1982 t1_iraa8x0 wrote

I'm a Massachusetts transplant I know a lot of you don't like us but honestly the healthcare is atrocious up here. I hate calling out hospital specifically but Southern New Hampshire is a nightmare. Between the lady that committed suicide after being released too early a few years ago the long long wait times disrespectful nursing staff. Also there's a huge huge lack of mental health resources for people. That's a real shame that that guy butchers somebody messes up on the table and the public isn't allowed to know about it good job New Hampshire.

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irr1449 t1_iragyzq wrote

Portland Maine has been absolutely amazing compared to Southern NH. I consume a lot of health care services because I have a chronic condition. I’ve been blown away with how great Maine Medical has been.

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pumpkinpatch1982 t1_irak0db wrote

I'm going to have to definitely look into Maine I'm trying to work with my insurance to try to get looked at at Beth Israel or Mass general but I'm sure everyone knows dealing with the insurance companies is just as bad as dealing with the doctor

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BanjoAndy t1_iraoeh4 wrote

Yes - of the 5 states I've lived in NH is the worst. Fully agree with your assessment of SNH.

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pumpkinpatch1982 t1_iraokeu wrote

dude at this point I would go see a back alley surgeon or a veterinarian before I ever let them cut into me lol.

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broknkittn t1_irgglp9 wrote

See also, Texas. There's been some really bad docs that just got shuffled around down there.

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Peeeculiar t1_ir9ti5b wrote

I thought this was going to be another Union Leader "Best of NH" announcement.

Best Burger - Lakes Region: McDonalds

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ChristopherDuntsch OP t1_ir9qohy wrote

>The Globe found Baribeau had actually the worst record in the nation when it comes to malpractice settlements involving surgical deaths in the last two decades. 

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KrissaKray t1_ir9vf8v wrote

Odd that they're still employed there while CMC has *supposedly* one of the better cardiac depts in the state.

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moneyforsoy t1_ira4jv8 wrote

I believe the surgeon abruptly retired in 2019. But his face was on plenty of billboards advertising the NE Heart Institute

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valleyman02 t1_iracctu wrote

So we should make him the general surgeon of the US.

/s

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Johnny_WalkerBOT t1_irah5xy wrote

This tells me that in spite of 21 malpractice settlements, Baribeau was still able to get insurance. How the hell is that even possible? I always thought the requirement to carry malpractice insurance would weed out those who were not fit to practice medicine by making it prohibitively expensive after your first few fuckups.

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GreatGrandaddyPurp t1_ircvuq8 wrote

If you're the top earning surgeon at a large hospital... life, uh, finds a way.

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Spitfirefunsnack t1_ira41kz wrote

I worked at DHMC, I wish they would make them public.

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KrissaKray t1_ir9vbzu wrote

CMC? Who'd have thought?

​

I drove by it the other day with my mom and I said "this hospital is closer to my new place - I don't want to have to go here if anything ever goes wrong"

She (a nurse) replied "Just go to Elliot, doesn't matter it's a few extra miles away" lmao

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HorrorThis t1_irach9b wrote

I work right across the street from CMC and have it noted in my employee file and my wife knows that in an emergency I am to be taken to Elliot hospital and if for some reason I end up at CMC I want to be transferred to Eliot as soon as I'm stable enough to do so.

CMC will deny you care based on religion. They will let you die. I've had more than one loved one suffer at that hospital only to recover as soon as they left to another.

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Johnny_WalkerBOT t1_iragifu wrote

Do you have any examples of this you can link to? My father and I have both spent time in CMC, we're both strong atheists. I told them in no uncertain terms that I didn't want nuns anywhere near me. They still took excellent care of me.

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Different_Ad7655 t1_irb2wr3 wrote

Yes I've been to CMC for several procedures and there's never a religious push at all. It's completely invisible to the patient if you don't want it and I also have nothing to complain about. I can't say the same about the Elliot, but there you go. I don't know but as soon as it difficult thing and when you need it you need it

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KrissaKray t1_iraehqq wrote

Wait REALLY?! I knew it was Catholic (duh) but I had no idea there’d be discrimination based on religion.

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HorrorThis t1_iraiykw wrote

What I meant is they will deny you medicine and health care access based on the fact it is a religious hospital. They put religion before healthcare to the point of being extremely dangerous. Avoid this place, especially if you are a woman or obviously not Christian.

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murderqwik t1_ircwfzu wrote

I prefer Elliot to CMC just because they have access to more support imo. The Elliot is part of SolutionHealth which is loosely affiliated with Mass General Brigham iirc.

That said Boston has some of the best teaching hospitals in the world such as MGB, Beth Israel Lahey, and tufts. These health systems provide over 50% of care for Massachusetts and offer their own insurance plans through MassHealth, which may contribute to higher cost of care. Also, as specialty care becomes better further outside of city centers, it reduces the need for acute care in those areas, to a degree. Therefore, these health systems can justifiably funnel acute care patients into higher cost beds around Boston. I'm not saying that it's a bad model, but I can see why some people worry about it. And I'm certainly not a billing & insurance wizard, so if someone has more info please correct me. /Rant

If I had an acute life-threatening illness or trauma there's no doubt I'd want to go to Boston. No knock on Dartmouth, which is a level 1 trauma center and has a great reputation with the med school and Colby-sawyer nursing.

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ThunderSk33t t1_iracsoc wrote

Grew up with this guys kids. They had the biggest house I’ve ever seen

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[deleted] t1_iraaccw wrote

[deleted]

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valleyman02 t1_iraatwv wrote

They save my life in 2018.

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Wiked_Pissah t1_irbnq38 wrote

In 2006 I had a routine surgery at Elliot hospital that ended up with me in a coma for 2 weeks, ICU for 3 weeks and almost 8 weeks total in a hospital bed. All because of the surgeon screwing up. And I was the first of 3 surgeries that went bad with this Dr. My brother in law was assisting for him on one of the other surgeries and had to go before the board of directors at Elliot to give a statement. He said "Dr. was asking for his opinion (a PA) on what he should do next to the point where he felt very uncomfortable being in the operating room with him" This Dr. soon lost all privileges to practice at any NH hospital and I believe his licenses in general. A quick Google search shows him currently practicing in Lady Lake Florida.

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broknkittn t1_irggcel wrote

That's awful. I hope you're in a better state today.

You'd think any hospital would at least Google him to see why he's no longer with a place or where he's been prior and get more than an HR "he was employed here" response. These people are messing with people's lives and you'd think a hospital/phys office wouldn't want to employ such people. As malpractice insurance and populace insurance skyrockets.

And then Florida hires him. 😑

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Wiked_Pissah t1_irgpr7m wrote

One would hope so. The worse part was it took them 3 days after the surgery STILL to figure out what happened. I literally had last rights and wasn't supposed to live through the night twice.

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broknkittn t1_irgpwwv wrote

Holy shit, that's insane. Glad you're still here! Love the username.

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Wiked_Pissah t1_irgqcq0 wrote

Thank you. It hasn't been easy to recover. I literally had to learn to walk again. I am 100% convinced the only reason I am still here is that I wasn't willing to leave my 2 daughters alone.

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JungyBrungun t1_irb0043 wrote

I say we give him another a chance

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smartest_kobold t1_ir9s3gr wrote

Remember this the next time you hear about tort reform.

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golfgrandslam t1_ira7sn6 wrote

I haven't heard about tort reform since 2008

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dog_eat_dog t1_iraj4qe wrote

I've heard about tort reform so little that I don't even know what it is.

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