Vegas-area Hospitals Skip Out on Accountability Conference Held in Vegas

All Southern Nevada hospitals are snubbing an industry conference on, of all things, accountability.

Some say the snubbing is due to the hospitals’ aversion to change from the industry’s long-standing practice of withholding information and being less than forthcoming about doctors’ mistakes.

Not so, say the hospitals. They’re blaming lost invitations and poor publicity.

The irony and confusion don’t end there.

The conference, titled "Accountability: The Case for Transparency and Disclosure in Health Care," and administered by the Risk Management and Patient Safety Institute, is having some transparency issues of its own.  When the the Las Vegas Sun asked for a list of hospitals who did get the invitation and information, and RSVP’d with a “yes” – the Risk Management and Patient Safety Institute said “no.”

Coincidentally, Catholic Healthcare West is holding a similar disclosure conference in San Francisco.  Several Las Vegas-area hospitals are attending that.

The Southern Nevada conference comes at a time when when the Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that would allow doctors to say they are sorry or express sympathy for medical mistakes without having that admission used against them in lawsuits.