title:  Governor Rick Scott Dumps Hospital Standards After Big Healthcare Donation
text: Governor Rick Scott of Florida may be the worst governor in modern history. So, of course he formally endorsed Donald Trump and has been cited as a possible VP choice for the likely Republican presidential nominee. Rather than let Trump take all the glory in racist provocations, insane proposals, and a supporter base which represents the worst things about this country, Governor Rick Scott matches Trump in how low a public official can really go, and may offer a glimpse into what lies in the future for this country if Donald Trump is elected president.The giant, for-profit, hospital chain, Tenet Healthcare, was investigated by journalists in July 2015 amid claims the hospitals were failing miserably in living up to the state of Florida s quality standards for children s heart surgery. A CNN investigation found the mortality rate for these surgeries was more than three times the national average.Instead of improving the quality of care in their hospitals, Tenet Healthcare responded with a $200,000 donation to Florida Republicans, and in kind, Governor Rick Scott got rid of the standards, allowing Tenet Healthcare to continue making thousands of dollars from performing these surgeries while endangering the lives of thousands of children born with heart defects. Of course, Governor Scott and Tenet denied having conversations with one another, despite the coincidence that Governor Scott decided a couple months after the investigation to repeal the standards when he had since the time he took office in 2011 to do so.Florida s Department of Health excused the repeal due to the legislature not having the authority to have enacted them in the first place, regardless the standards have been in place for an uncontested 32 years. Parents and cardiac pediatricians took the state of Florida to court over the state s repealing of the standards, but the Florida judge ruled in favor of the state. The same judge ruled in 2014, a doctor accused of handcuffing and beating a patient over the course of a yearlong sexual relationship can continue to practice medicine. I can t think of anywhere else in the country where you have safety standards and someone doesn t like them, so you just have it repealed,  Dr. Peter Pronovost, senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told CNN in an interview this past January. These standards have been in use for more than 30 years, and they re widely acknowledged to ensure safety   why would you repeal them? If the state really felt it didn t have the legislative authority to have the standards, why wouldn t they go out and get that authority? This is exactly the kind of corruption we don t need in government, and in the worst possible industry. Sacrificing the health of your constituency for political donations is as low as it gets.Featured image via Flickr