http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zisnZ7bluA
Like father, like son. Sure, just record a video on YouTube saying the most obvious bull shit we already know to get yourself into the limelight. We already knew that your son is a dick. It is obvious. You didn’t have to tell us on YouTube. Very hypocritical.
What HR 686 means to American patients.(Washington report)
Medical Laboratory Observer November 1, 2006 | Cummings, Elijah The safety of our medical laboratories is one of the most vital issues facing our healthcare system today. A full 70% of medical decisions are affected by lab results. Almost every American undergoes testing at some point, relying on the accuracy of those tests to receive appropriate medical care and treatment. That is why we must demand the highest level of medical lab safety at all our nation’s labs, and it is equally vital that we provide the highest level of protections to medical lab technicians.
Just ask Kristin Turner, who used to work as a lab technician at Maryland General Hospital. She contracted HIV and hepatitis C in 2003 when the machine she was using malfunctioned, splattering her with infected blood. Sadly, the injustice imposed upon Turner did not end there. She had long been horrified by the conditions of the lab, being an outspoken critic even before she was infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Turner’s efforts to blow the whistle on these injustices only increased after the incident, and she was rewarded for her efforts by losing her job.
It was only because of Turner’s whistle-blowing that state officials ever discovered that over a 14-month period more than 2,000 patients were issued invalid HIV and hepatitis C test results by Maryland General Hospital. It was only because of her selflessness that we discovered that there were serious lapses in our nation’s medical laboratory oversight system.
Often I have asked myself: How could hospital officials have so blindly ignored the cries of this determined whistle-blower? We have since worked with state and local officials to fix these problems by implementing and enforcing a stricter set of lab oversight rules to prevent any such reoccurrence. But the story of what happened in my home state of Maryland made those of us in the federal government question whether this public-health problem might be more widespread: Could the fates of people across the country be the same as Turner and those 2,000 patients? We felt that we had an obligation to find out. see here maryland general hospital
That is why, along with Rep. Mark Souder, (R-IN), and Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), I requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the quality of medical labs nationwide. Unfortunately, its findings are less than encouraging. The GAO says it cannot conduct a system-wide analysis because the necessary data do not exist; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) changed its oversight process in 2004, making it impossible to compare standards. What the GAO did find, however, were the same shortcomings we discovered in Congressional hearings:
* Would-be whistle-blowers are discouraged from reporting lab failures for fear of retaliation from lab workers.
* A focus on so-called “education” over imposing sanctions by inspectors makes masking deficiencies easier. site maryland general hospital
* The collegial composition of lab inspection oversight teams often presents a conflict of interest.
GAO also made a series of 13 recommendations for how lab oversight could be improved–11 with which CMS concurred, noting that the guidelines will serve to provide greater insight to increasing and reinforcing its oversight. To address these issues, I introduced the “Clinical Laboratory Compliance Improvement Act” in the 108th and 109th Congresses, HR 5311 and HR 686 respectively. The bill would institute many of the reforms GAO recommended, including:
* establishing whistle-blower protections for employees of clinical labs;
* requiring labs to post signs to encourage whistle-blowers to come forward;
* requiring reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services; and * requiring that accreditation surveys be unannounced.
I call on all my colleagues in Congress to support HR 686 and urge like-minded readers to contact their representatives to help garner this support. We have a moral obligation to our medical practitioners and their patients to demand the highest level of medical-lab quality. Too many people rely on these results for life-saving medical information, and too many workers rely on lab safety in their jobs every day to accept anything less.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), 7th U.S. Congressional District of Maryland, is a strong advocate for quality healthcare. Since 2004, when a medical facility in his district allegedly gave false lab tests to patients, he called for congressional hearings on–and continues to examine–national lab safety issues.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) RELATED ARTICLE: Keeping up with the bills To receive up-to-date information on legislative bills, go to the Library of Congress THOMAS Web page at thomas.loc.gov.
This site offers a variety of search options for tracking bills, such as a search by key phrase or bill number or advanced search features that filter results by floor actions, sessions, date, house only, or senate only. Bills can also be tracked by sponsor or recent activity.
THOMAS, which was launched in 1995, “in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson,” also offers information on congressional records, treaties, committee reports, roll call votes, and legislative calendars.
Cummings, Elijah
