Recent Posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Medical errors - the main cause of fatal accidents in the U.S.

Hearst newspaper has an extensive article written about the frequency of medical errors and how she is the No. 1 cause of road deaths in America. You can use the story on the website of the Seattle Post Intellingencer website.

The article says that 98,000 people die each year from medical errors. That is more than the number of people in the 9 / 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center killed. Even more than 99,000 patients succumb to hospital-acquiredInfections, and most of these deaths are clearly preventable.

Hearst says that there is a prevailing "veil of secrecy" among hospitals when it comes to reporting the error and the circumstances of the avoidable deaths of patients. It seems that between the states that participate in health campaigns are only 20% of hospitals are involved in these areas. One would think that would provide medical error death statistics-an incentivefor most, if not all of these hospitals to participate in a campaign designed to reduce errors and avoid unnecessary mistakes too.

The case of Michael Blankenship

A 15-year-old boy wanted to dental treatment in the dental clinic, a well known and respected hospital which specializes in the treatment of children. Michael Blankenship had autism, but he received regular treatment at this hospital.

When Michael was discharged, the hospital chief pediatric dentist to a disastrousMistake. She wrote a fentanyl "pain patch" because the hospital would be Michael's mother that her son could not, or not take oral medication information because of his autism. This fact was recorded in graphical Michael years ago.

The dentist prescribed fentanyl, a very powerful narcotic that is used to treat patients with chronic pain. After the warning should label the drug, fentanyl never an opiate-naive as to require a young 15-year-old boy whohad no history of narcotic drugs over a long period of time. And the drug should not be used to treat acute pain or pain after surgery on an as needed.

But Michael dentist prescribed the highest dose available and instructed her mother to the patch for later that evening. The hospital did not recognize the head of the pharmacist errors, and my mother also said that the prescription was correct again, and the dosage safely.

Michael's mother did as instructed. TheMichael was next morning dead in his room. The fentanyl patch supplied so much of the drugs to Michael's system, it causes respiratory arrest, and this caused his death. As you can imagine, is destroyed Michael's mother.

The whole family is now suffering through what was a very avoidable mistakes. It should never have been the case, were taken adequate safeguards, which the hospital.

A dentist decided to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs that neverwas primarily with prescription medicines. The dentist was consulted only the doctor Desk Reference (a reference book that most doctors are) in her office to find out that there is at least 5 warning signs at Michael's, which would have informed any reasonably competent doctor that the drug may not be used general.

What can we as a society to prevent medical errors? The first order of business is, how widespread failure to communicate, are in our hospitalstoday. But the doctors and the state medical association consistently spout propaganda, the attention of these mind-numbing statistics, arguing that doctors should be immune from mistakes, so lawyers can not sue and get millions of dollars to divert the jury's judgments.

I have never seen a multi-million dollar verdict against a physician or hospital, which included not a terrible injury or the unnecessary death of a patient. To maim case of negligent doctors and hospitals, and kill them, because they have aconsiderable amount of suffering, pain, and usually an extensive neeed for future medical care.

Only a few years before the Washington State Medical Association led an aggressive campaign to limit recoverable damages in medical negligence. The doctors argue that doctors have with the state in record numbers because of the outrageous premiums to leave. The measure was struck down by Washington citizens. But word that the WSMA is planning thenext attack in the coming years.

The article by Hearst again have the awareness of a problem that no one, not the local and national governments together addressed through public awareness and intelligent disclosure laws. If hospitals were forced to report all cases of negligence, then I believe more would be done to avoid the mistakes in the first place. But the healthcare industry has continued to fight against adequate reporting and disclosure laws.

Thanks To : business news

0 comments:

Post a Comment