By: Barrie Quappé RN, BSN – Consultant/Director:
Healthcare can be dangerous territory.
What nobody talks or writes about is that it really starts with you. You, dear reader, know your body better than anyone else and certainly better than your regular physician.
How truthful are you during an initial assessment with your doctor? Do you tell the truth about how much you drink, smoke and all those others ‘pleasures’ people indulge in? Have you asked your parents and grandparents for causes of death and disease that you may be at risk for? If you have allergies, have you informed your pharmacist, doctor and any other medical care giver who has interacted with you? One better; does your significant other know these in case you cannot communicate for yourself?
Yes, to all you say? Well done but this is just a start.
Do you question any medication prescribed to you or given to you during a hospitalization?
“A well-informed patient can help stop an error before it occurs.” (Pop and Finocchi, 2016)
If a nurse asks the patient prior to administration of a medication whether they have taken this medication and the dosage before, errors could be avoided. Some persons just trust doctors blindly and this is when important details get glossed over, or omitted.
Communication is another pothole that healthcare falls into. An informal testing of this is related by Dr. Merlino:
“I tested this theory anecdotally by sending a medical student into 20 patient rooms 10 minutes after my visit. The student asked the patient: “Do you remember the plan of care that Dr. Merlino discussed with you?” Fewer than half of the 20 patients could recite the plan for the day.” (Merlino, 2015)
In order to engage and help yourself remember, ask questions. Why are they ordering a certain blood test? If the pain is in my abdomen, what can an ultrasound show? Be more involved in your own healthcare.
The truth is, medical errors are prevalent. In fact, Hofstadter and Moser as cited in Pop and Finocchi, note that:
“It may be said that our brains are naturally wired to make errors because of our propensity to be creative.” (Pop and Finocchi, 2016)
That includes your healthcare providers.
For Cayman, there is no easily accessible database on the amount of deaths caused by medical malpractice. Here we really don’t know how prevalent it is or isn’t from a factual https://www.caymanhealthcareconsulting.ky/wp-admin/post.php?post=375&action=edit&ip-geo-block-auth-nonce=1858c0803cstandpoint. However, we are not alone. The United States also struggles with accurate data:
“But the problem is that no one knows exactly how many deaths are really caused by medical errors, in part because the coding system used by the CDC to record death certificate data “doesn’t capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives,” the NPR story notes.”
Given the above, it behooves each and every one of us to be more proactive of our own health and healthcare. It just may prevent a medical error to you and your family.
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Relevant Links:
- (Hagland, 2016) Hagland further notes: “As reported on National Public Radio (NPR) online, “A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine says medical errors should rank as the third-leading cause of death in the United States — and highlights how shortcomings in tracking vital statistics may hinder research and keep the problem out of the public eye.”
- Hagland, M., (2016), ‘Johns Hopkins Research Finds Medical Errors Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S.’, Healthcare Informatics [Online] http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/johns-hopkins-research-finds-medical-errors-third-leading-cause-death-us-author-asks-cdc
- Merlino, J. (2015) ‘Service Fanatics’, McGraw-Hill
- Pop, M. & Finocchi,M. (2016) ‘Medication Errors: A Case-Based Review’, AACN Advanced Critical Care, 27(1) pp.5-11[Online] Available from: http://www.aacn.org/wd/Cetests/media/ACC631.pdf