FierceHealthcareFierceHealthITFierceHealthFinanceFierceEMRHospital ImpactFierceMobileHealthcare   FiercePharma

Hospital mistakenly calls man dead

Tools
Tags
Medicare

When 76-year-old Roy Lee Jr. got a letter from a hospital telling his family that he had died, he thought it was funny--until he stopped getting his Social Security payments. The letter, while not quite up there with removing the wrong limb from a patient, was an embarrassing slip for Melbourne, FL-based health system Health First. To be fair, the problem was really the fault of the Social Security Administration, which killed off Mr. Lee with a clerical error. The real fun began when Social Security told Medicare Lee had passed away, and Medicare told the hospital. Of course, no hospital wants to be known as one that kills patients, especially when the patient's not actually dead. But in this case, at least, the patient doesn't really mind, as long as Social Security goes back to sending checks.

Get more information on the mistake:
- read this article on WFTV.com

Bookmark and Share
Get Your FREE FierceHealthcare Email Newsletter:
Be the first to comment

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

More information about formatting options

To combat spam, please enter the code in the image.