Doctors Perform Unnecessary Tests for Increased Profit

Doctors at hospital chain giant performed unnecessary cardiac work, increasing profits

Investigation into internal records reveals hospitals prioritized their bottom line

By REED ABELSON and JULIE CRESWELL from The New York Times 8/7/2012

In the summer of 2010, a troubling letter reached the chief ethics officer of the hospital giant HCA, written by a former nurse at one of the company’s hospitals in Florida.

In a follow-up interview, the nurse said a doctor at the Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, in the small coastal city of Fort Pierce, had been performing heart procedures on patients who did not need them, putting their lives at risk.

“It bothered me,” the nurse, C. T. Tomlinson, said in a telephone interview. “I’m a registered nurse. I care about my patients.”

In less than two months, an internal investigation by HCA concluded the nurse was right.

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