Medical Errors

[Zedor]

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Sure, medical errors may be relatively common, but to the extent of this CNN article? This statement seems outlandish to me...

"Each hospital, whether they publicly admit it or not, and whether or not it's discoverable in a lawsuit, has an episode of wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery either every year or once every few years," says Makary, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Almost every surgeon has seen one."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/18/health.surgery.mixups.common/index.html

 

[Rendar5]

Sure, medical errors may be relatively common, but to the extent of this CNN article? This statement seems outlandish to me...

"Each hospital, whether they publicly admit it or not, and whether or not it's discoverable in a lawsuit, has an episode of wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery either every year or once every few years," says Makary, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Almost every surgeon has seen one."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/18/health.surgery.mixups.common/index.html

My hospital supposedly had one this year. One every few years is possible. it's the reason surgeons use checklists, to avoid these errors. As checklists become more accepted/ used, this will become less common.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I definitely don't think errors are as uncommon as anyone would like to believe. Even at places with good protocols in place stuff happens and we don't even find out about all of the errors that occur.

 

[theseeker4]

Sure, medical errors may be relatively common, but to the extent of this CNN article? This statement seems outlandish to me...

"Each hospital, whether they publicly admit it or not, and whether or not it's discoverable in a lawsuit, has an episode of wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery either every year or once every few years," says Makary, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Almost every surgeon has seen one."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/18/health.surgery.mixups.common/index.html

How many surgeries occur at a significantly-sized hospital in a year? How many wrong-site surgeries would be necessary for a 0.1% error rate? How about 0.01%? Seems plausible to me, though obviously there is much room for improvement.

 

[PostHaste]

Sure, medical errors may be relatively common, but to the extent of this CNN article? This statement seems outlandish to me...

"Each hospital, whether they publicly admit it or not, and whether or not it's discoverable in a lawsuit, has an episode of wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery either every year or once every few years," says Makary, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Almost every surgeon has seen one."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/18/health.surgery.mixups.common/index.html

Remember that a wrong-site surgery doesn't necessarily mean they amputate the wrong leg. It's not always as dramatic as you would think. It is absolutely possible (probable) that what you quoted is true, though I doubt every surgeon knows or would admit that they have seen it.

 

[PostHaste]

A timely posting in Anesthesia today about Air France 447 crash:

Human judgments, of course, are never made in a vacuum. Pilots are part of a complex system that can either increase or reduce the probability that they will make a mistake. After this accident, the million-dollar question is whether training, instrumentation, and cockpit procedures can be modified all around the world so that no one will ever make this mistake again—or whether the inclusion of the human element will always entail the possibility of a catastrophic outcome. After all, the men who crashed AF447 were three highly trained pilots flying for one of the most prestigious fleets in the world. If they could fly a perfectly good plane into the ocean, then what airline could plausibly say, "Our pilots would never do that"?


Read more: Air France 447 Flight-Data Recorder Transcript - What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447 - Popular Mechanics ​

Bolding is mine, and is, to me, the scariest part of all this. We know this stuff happens, but there's a pervasive sense of "oh, not me."​

 

[nguyen duc huy]

Medical mistakes are authentically unintentional catastrophes for both doctors and patients; however, it is hardly believed these errors occur so frequently and seriously as the article concludes. Iam studying medicine in a developing country where public hospitals have been never sufficiently equipped and frequently overburdened with a vast number of patients admitted everyday. Therefore, our therapists must work intensively but very fortunately, our rate of medical errors reported is a bit lower than in this article. So I feel quite amazed that hospitals in your countries have encountered the same fraction of mistakes although they are enormously assisted with new-generation equipment and modern protocol

 

[wholeheartedly]

So I feel quite amazed that hospitals in your countries have encountered the same fraction of mistakes although they are enormously assisted with new-generation equipment and modern protocol

The more pieces or players in the system, the more points where things can break down and errors can happen.

 

[PostHaste]

very fortunately, our rate of medical errors reported is a bit lower than in this article.

"Reported" errors are a terrible measure. Errors often aren't recognized either by the patient or the caregiver. When they are recognized, they frequently are not reported, whether because of fear of retribution or litigation, or because it was a near miss, or because someone just doesn't do it.