If you’re a doctor, nurse or healthcare practitioner, you’ve probably seen the alarming statistics of medical errors. A brief overview as reported by Answer My Health Question serves as a sobering reminder:
- Every year, 7,000 patients die due to sloppy handwriting.
- Over 7.5 million unnecessary medical & surgical procedures are performed annually.
- More than half of the US population has received unnecessary medical treatment.
- Over 42% of people have been directly affected by a medical mistake, procedure or drug.
- Over 106,000 people die each year from adverse drug reactions to prescription drugs.
To stem the tide of injuries and deaths due to medical mistakes, the government has proposed a new patient reporting system. A recent New York Times article suggests that such a reporting system will put a brighter spotlight on doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other medical practitioners.
Under the new reporting system, patients and their relatives would report medical errors through a website and in telephone interviews. The report would ask respondents what happened; details of the event; when, where, whether there was harm; the type of harm; contributing factors; and whether the patient reported the event and to whom. The questionnaire would even list possible reasons:
- A health care provider did not communicate well with the patient or their family.
- A health care provider didn’t respect the patient’s race, language or culture.
- A health care provider didn’t seem to care about the patient.
- A health care provider was too busy.
- A health care provider didn’t spend enough time with the patient.
- Health care providers failed to work together.
- Health care providers were not aware of care received elsewhere.
Proponents argue such reporting could reveal how a drug mix-up occurred, why a surgery was performed on the wrong body part, or how a patient received too much radiation.
Hospitals, doctors and nurses say the proposal has merit. “It’s a great concept. The idea is welcome,” said Nancy E. Foster, a vice president of the American Hospital Association. Many doctors agree. Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, the director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality said, “Currently there is no mechanism for consumers to report information about patient safety events. Patient reports could complement and enhance reports from providers and thus produce a more complete and accurate understanding of the prevalence and characteristics of medical errors.”
If the pilot project is cleared by the White House, questionnaires would start popping up at kiosks in hospitals and doctors’ offices as early as May 2013. Information about the project would available at pharmacies and mailed to patients. Reporting is voluntary, and the information would be kept confidential.
The goal is to determine if the mistake involved the wrong medicine, the wrong dose of medicine or reactions to a drug; the wrong test or procedure, the wrong diagnosis or surgery on the wrong body part; or blood clots, infections, problems with anesthesia or “unclean or unsanitary care.”
Image by nattavut / freedigitalphotos.net
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