ABSTRACT
As discussed in Chapter 4, the sheer number of patients and procedures provides many places to hide in the massive U.S. healthcare system. Œunder (2003) said that the number of employees who have routine access to patients is well over 4 million people. And there is ample opportunity to create medical mischief. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) report, “Procedures in U.S. Hospitals, 2003,” close to 60 percent of all patients received a procedure during their hospital stay, which means a signi¤cant opportunity for healthcare professionals to gain access to patients during bedside procedures. Some moments are more advantageous than others in the healthcare environment for a practitioner wishing to cause harm to a patient, such as when changing dressings, changing IVs, and administering narcotics. As we will see, hospitals are rife with opportunities for committing murder.
