Mistakes Still Prevalent in Hospital Care, Study Finds

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Efforts to make hospitals safer are falling short, researchers report, in the first large study in a decade to analyze harm from medical care and track it over time.

The study, in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and did not decrease from 2002 to 2007. The most common problems included complications from procedures or drugs, followed by hospital-acquired infections.

“It is unlikely that other regions of the country have fared better,” said Dr. Christopher P. Landrigan, the first author of the study and an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School.

The study is the one of the most rigorous efforts to collect data about patient safety since a landmark report in 1999 stated that medical mistakes caused 44,000 to 98,000 deaths and more than 1 million injuries a year in the United States. The 1999 report, by the Institute of Medicine, sparked a national movement to reduce errors and make hospital stays less hazardous to patients’ health.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/health/research/25patient.html

[global1]

1. This Article Is Both Shocking And Embarrassing ........

This is what happens when the almighty dollar is the prime consideration and not exceptional patient care.

As in other industries - in order to maximize profit - hospitals are trying to get by with less resources and people - and the patients are put in jeopardy.

Less nurses - working longer hours - having a bigger patient load - and having to get by with less resources.

This spells problems for the patient that is subjected to these conditions.

A message for any DUer and your families: When you are in a hospital - you need to be aware what is happening to you or your loved ones. You need to be your own patient advocate. You need to speak up and question.

Don't just sit back and think that you are in the hands of experienced professionals. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab personnel, and all allied health personnel are human and they are subject to human error.

Be vigilant!!!!!

[Grinchie]

4. Vigilance is key to preventing injury in Hospital

Most people don't even think of the fact that they could be incapacitated to a degree where they are not even aware of the situation, and in these cases they must have someone watching out for them until they regain the capacity to deal with the situation for themselves.

Many times, patients are treated no better than a farm animal using a one size fits all approach of allopathic medicine, and barbarous numbers of injections, bloodletting, IVs, and phophylactic applications of drugs that in most cases you don't need. It is up to you to say "NO, I do not need to take your Rat Poison because my heart is healthy". or "NO, I don't need your Stool softener because I'm shitting like a goose".

Many times they will try to scare you by asking in a stern voice "Are you refusing treatment!?", to which you say, I am refusing that particular treatment, because it is not applicable to me. Most people cave, like the Hospital will be kicking them out for not taking a pill.

Hospitals these days are very cruel and inhuman places at times, especially in ICU and Emergency Wards. It is much better when you are moved to the recovery wards and you actually get acquainted which longtime nurses, but even then, you much be alery, wash your hands constantly, make sure you have plenty of water at your bedside, and most of all, someone that come bring you real food instead of the Aspartame, Sucralose, and otherwise unhealthy food they serve in all hospitals.

[libmom74]

5. i agree

they add more and more paper work and forms to cut back on errors and they cut back on staff for budget reasons and then wonder why there are so many errors, meanwhile the groups that come up with the forms in administration have either never touched a patient or haven't in 25 years and don't understand that patients are much sicker now because they come in later because of a lack of preventative care.

[uppityperson]

6. "Less nurses - working longer hours - having a bigger patient load - and having to get by with less"

"Less nurses - working longer hours - having a bigger patient load - and having to get by with less resources. "

Exactly. You may be in thew hands of experienced professionals, but we are very very very overwhelmed with increasing patient load and decreasing staffing.

[cstanleytech]

2. We have a hospital in my area that has these and other issues.

In fact when my mother was recently in she almost died.
She wasnt responding so we called the ambulance and the doctor in the ICU put it off to her bloodsugar level being low and refused to do any tests on her CO2 levels like we advised them to check because of her COPD, we had to call the ambulance that same night to take her back because she thought it was 1998 and the doctor then on duty (a different one) checked and her CO2 was dangerously high.
Then to top it off the nurses in the regular part of the hospital (not the ICU nurses as they are very good there) set her oxygen way to high and then they messed up by not monitoring her well enough and my brother found her passed out in her room and she had vomited all over herself and they had to rush her back to the ICU.

[cyr330]

3. I'm an RN in a hospital. . .

And people would be terrified of being hospitalized if they only knew what went on and how many errors DO take place.

[Rozlee]

7. I'm a medically retired Army RN, too and boy are you right.

Everything from assigning 3 diabetics named Brown to one nurse to vials of Potassium injections--which can stop your heart--in the same containers with normal saline flushes. It never ends.

[Haole Girl]

8. Some of us do know

And ARE terrified.

:-(

[Crunchy Frog]

9. The experience that my mother's boyfriend had in one of our local hospitals

about a year ago has me convinced that some hospitals are quite literally criminal enterprises. What happened there was way beyond errors and incompetence.

[lovuian]

10. It is a fallacy that American Healthcare is good care

The reality is you walk in and you may not walk out

Nurses are overloaded

[cal04]

11. Hospitals hurt 18 percent of patients, study says

Source: NY Times

'Preventable complications are way too frequent in American health care'

Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are falling short, researchers report in the first large study in a decade to analyze harm from medical care and to track it over time.

The study, conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.

(snip)
For hospitals with poor scores, there should be consequences, Ms. Binder said: “And the consequences need to be the feet of the American public.”




Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40370892/ns/health-the_new_york_times/

[burnsei sensei]

12. Wow. And I thought profit and competition

would keep me safe!
Whatever was I thinking?

[Celeborn Skywalker]

13. It's because of staffing cuts and heavier workloads.

I've worked at both private and state hospitals and I can tell you that they expect you to have the same safety record with no errors even when they severely cut staff and give a nurse or an aide a dangerously heavy patient load. It's bullshit.