If you think it’s in any way tolerable that nobody noticed a patient’s monitor is OFF for a half hour, and it took them TEN HOURS to figure out he’s been having a heart attack IN THEIR EMERGENCY ROOM, then I’d say you’ve given up on competence. And that’s not tolerable, to me personally.

I’d say it’s charitable of the family not to give the name of the hospital.

I know of at least one person who mines through twitter hashtags to find women (or, more often their partners) tweeting details during labor and birth. She’ll butt in with bits of patient advocacy when it seems from the tweets that the woman is getting poor treatment or being railroaded into a cesarean she doesn’t need. There have in fact been several #twitterbirths, with other expectant or new moms giving support and encouragement and childbirth educators, nurses, doulas, etc. offering up information and trying to help women avoid the boobytraps they might encounter in the hospital. I wonder what would happen if a bunch of volunteers (or professionals?) “listened” to twitter to pick up conversations about people in the ER, and offered them support and advocacy for navigating the system they’re relying on for safe care.

Also, I zoomed in on the “never come here” tweet because when, if ever, does anyone have a choice of hospital?