I think it's important to be discerning about the information that's shared. For example, the article states:
Long-term care hospitals also had a higher incidence of bedsores and infections than regular hospitals in 2006, the most recent year for which federal data is available.
I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on tv, but I would think this higher incidence makes sense - infections are very common in situations where someone is on a ventilator, iv line or tube feeding, and the risks of infection go up significantly as time passes. Thus, it makes sense to a layperson like me that a long-term care hospital fielding patients with iv's, ventilators and feeding tubes for extended periods, rather than regular, short-term hospitals, would have more infections. (for more info on ICU infections and the easy fix to avoiding them, read this amazing article in the New Yorker)
Despite my reservation about some of the facts, the most basic information in the long-term care hospital article makes a compelling case, especially when you look at the money shifting and how the hospitals are gaming the system.
I keep coming back to the same solution to so many problems... It seems that before meaningful, liberating, paradigm-shifting, lasting humanitarian change can happen in the world, we must abolish corporate personhood.
