Duke's transplant woes.

The Raleigh News & Observer reports in an article today that Duke's transplant program was given a clean bill of health by the regional CMS office in Atlanta. At issue were a lack of coordination between the transplant center and the regional organ procurement organization, as well as problems with dialysis equipment that were discovered after the death of Jesica Santillan last summer. The story is an interesting representation of today's health care system in a microcosm: Duke states that its goal "is to maintain the highest safety standards for the benefit of our patients and staff," while the paper notes that "[a]t risk were the hospital's Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, which make up 40 percent of its revenues." Duke's chances of losing Medicare/Medicaid certification are about equal to my chances of setting the Major League Baseball home run record, but the publicity alone, let alone the theoretical possibility, tends to focus the institution wonderfully.