A mistake is
something every human makes. No matter what profession you’re in, it's
inevitable. Medical staff are not an
exception to this, unfortunately; medical mistakes can result in tragic
consequences. With the advancement of
equipment and supplies in the medical industry, mistakes have been reduced by
up to 70%. That is a marked improvement,
but that does still indicate that mistakes happen.
Related: Medical Care in Alaska
Medical Mistakes in the United States
1. Failure to provide the proper
tests. A patient may arrive at the
hospital complaining of chest pain. It
is the responsibility of the hospital physician to examine the patient and rule
out conditions, such as a heart attack.
In most all cases, the physician would do every test to ensure the
problem is not cardiac related. In the
event that they did not order tests, such as EKG’s, that would then be
considered a medical mistake should the patient suffer from a heart attack.
2. Delay in Treatment (that was
avoidable). Emergency rooms can get
extremely busy at times, and it is the responsibility of the triage staff to
determine which person needs attention and care first. While it can be obvious, a person that can't
breathe or a cut that needs a couple stitches, some cases may not be as
distinguishable. If a person enters the
emergency room, and complains of flu like symptoms, body aches, etc., it is
normally not considered a medical emergency.
However, many people, women in particular, start out with similar
symptoms when they are having a heart attack.
This is when human error can occur, creating a medical mistake. A triage nurse should consider every possible
factor involved. The patient's age,
their weight, essentially their risk factors for coronary disease. Obtaining blood pressure readings, and
observing overall appearance, while asking the patient about neck pain, back
pain, and arm pain, would be a complete evaluation. Failure to follow these steps could be viewed
as a medical mistake in the event of a patient's death.
3. Safety and precautions. If a 75 year old out of shape patient enters
the emergency room and complains of dizziness, they should be monitored
closely. Once it is determined the
patient is dizzy, they should be labeled as a fall risk. Unless, proper care is provided to the patient,
they may be at risk of injury. Have two
people assist with movement, a fall under the circumstances is likely, which
could result in broken bones. This is a
scenario of a medical mistake due to lack of precautions.
4. Failure to Study test results. For physicians, they see numerous patients
during a given shift. In most cases they
may make a skilled assessment and be right 98% of the time, what they feel is
wrong with the patient. That does still
leave a small percentage of the time that they could be wrong. Some recorded medical Mistakes occurred
because the doctor based the treatment on his suspicions instead of confirming
through tests. In a case such as this a
patient's proper treatment could be delayed, which in turn would be a medical
mistake.
5. Lack of proper monitoring after a
procedure. Following surgery, patients
are placed in recovery. While in
recovery patients should be monitored very closely, as narcotics can sometimes
react and cause a patient to stop breathing.
There have been numerous situations that this happened, perhaps the
nurse was super busy, and the patient appeared to be ok. Regardless, it has resulted in death and
permanent brain injury.
6. Patient preparation. This is a very difficult to control, because
medical staff only has so much control over what a patient does. When patients are preparing for surgery,
their list of medications is vital to know.
It should be written in their records, they should, go over it verbally
prior to the procedure, at least, twice.
This is not always the case, and several patients have bled to death on
the operating table as a result. It
somehow was never recorded that the patient was on a blood thinner, and it cost
lives in several cases. A very serious
and avoidable medical mistake, although it's possible the patient failed to
disclose information. This Is a case,
electronic patient records have cut down on errors.
7. Underestimating a patient's
pain. Not everyone feels pain at the
same level, and not everyone will convey how much pain they are in. It's important to observe the patient, and
see if they appear in distress. They may
say it does not hurt much, however, if their face says differently, consider
further treatment. Patients have been
lost because of treatment delays, and in fact they themselves said they were
not in tremendous pain. Unavailable equipment.
There is often little control over necessary medical, equipment in a
hospital, in which case need may have to be addressed. For a patient that could wait for an MRI,
versus a patient that may have little time, it's obvious which patient takes
priority. If there is no head of
department to make such decisions, valuable time could be lost and patients
could suffer.
8. Improper medication dosage in
hospital. Now there are measures in
place to avoid this most of the time, however, it is reported to still occur
3000 times per year. Checking, and rechecking is the best approach to ensure
the right patient, right dose.
9. Proper instructions upon release. When a patient is released, they are in a
hurry to go. It's important to make
certain they understand follow up care at home, including medications. Have the patient repeat instructions back to
you, and make sure they ask all questions they may have.
It's
necessary to realize, with all the care provided, the occurrence of mistakes is
actually very low. In the same way,
awareness is important. Paying cautious attention is the best way to avoid
mistakes in any field.
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