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#1
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10-30-2013, 08:04 PM
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 ★The Queen★ Poster Rank:67 Female Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 23,498
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Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
Hell, yes! JoNel Aleccia, NBC News Medical errors -- such as scissors left behind after surgery, (Getty images stock photo below), -- are an ongoing problem, particularly when doctors' detect their colleagues mistakes. A new paper is aimed at easing such difficult disclosures. Medical mistakes are now estimated to kill up to 440,000 people in U.S. hospitals each year, making preventable errors the third leading cause of death in America behind heart disease and cancer. Wrong doses of drugs, undetected tumors, objects left behind in patients’ bodies. Such errors — and many more — are an “everyday occurrence,” experts say. But eliminating errors has proven difficult, especially in a health care culture where doctors and other providers are reluctant not only to admit their own lapses — but also to report when others mess up as well. New guidelines issued today are aimed at tackling that problem, and helping ease the thorny dilemma of whether, when — and how — doctors should disclose their colleagues’ mistakes. “Progress on patient safety has been much more limited than anyone would like,” said Dr. Thomas Gallagher, a University of Washington professor of medicine and bioethics who led the team behind guidelines published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We haven’t made enough headway in improving communication. The difficulty physicians have in communicating with one another when something goes wrong is an important factor,” added Gallagher, who has been working on the issue for a decade. Power dynamics, professional courtesy and a medical culture that shies away from confronting colleagues all play into the problem. “The historical norm is that being a good colleague means not saying anything, having their back, when you think they’ve made a mistake,” Gallagher said. “We’re asking people to turn toward their colleagues in those instances.” The overall goal is to help patients, particularly those who’ve been harmed by a medical mistake. They deserve a full accounting of the problem and “should not bear the burden of digging for information” — or encounter a system that closes ranks against them, the paper says. The trouble is, colleagues detect or observe others’ errors all the time, said Art Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU Langone Medical Center, whose job includes the duty of refereeing such sticky situations. “Dealing with errors and near misses is an everyday occurrence at a big hospital,” he said. A medical student may notice that a senior doctor wrote the wrong dose on a prescription, for instance, or a doctor may notice that a colleague inserted a catheter or other device incorrectly, endangering a patient. Sometimes, a colleague’s mistake is as obvious as the image on an X-ray," says Dr. Michael Bresler, interim head of radiology at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System. “There have been cases of a radiologist missing a very small tumor that a year later becomes a very large tumor,” he said. “About once a year, there’s a bad one, with a bad outcome.” **Cancer Misdiagnosis Leaves Woman Disfigured** http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news/53414286#53414286 A Kentucky woman was left disfigured after being misdiagnosed with a cancerous tumor and mistreated with radiation will receive life-changing surgery thanks to a Kentucky doctor. WAVE's Scott Adkins reports, (link above).  ·  ·  · |
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#2
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10-30-2013, 08:53 PM
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 My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:594 Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 1,570 Mentioned: 3 Post(s) Quoted: 111 Post(s)
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
Oh my god  That is messed up, to be misdiagnosed and to undergo radiation therapy and she lost her baby... Oh my god...  I hope the doctor was fired... my god where the fuck did he get his degree from anyways  |
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#4
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10-30-2013, 09:30 PM
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| My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:594 Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 1,570 Mentioned: 3 Post(s) Quoted: 111 Post(s)
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
Hey love how are you :)? AHAHAAHAH! So true, I couldn't agree more  |
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#5
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10-30-2013, 09:37 PM
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| ★The Queen★ Poster Rank:67 Female Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 23,498
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
I'm well, thank you. How are you? I added more to the article, in case you haven't seen it. It was after your comment. |
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#6
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10-31-2013, 04:13 AM
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| My Rank: GUNNERY SERGEANT Poster Rank:594 Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 1,570 Mentioned: 3 Post(s) Quoted: 111 Post(s)
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
I'm great, thanks for asking :)! Just re-read it. It shocks me at how often medical mistakes/errors happen everyday we can't tolerate such nonsense... you can't make mistakes with someones life in your hands! Colleagues need to take initiative as well and definitely REPORT any errors/mistakes the doctor may have missed... |
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#7
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10-31-2013, 10:57 AM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:882 Female Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 851
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
Mistakes happen, everyone in the medical field is only human. But, the difference between the article and the proper way to handle it is, admit the mistake, or a witnessed mistake, take measures to correct it. Don't slide it under some rug and hope that no one notices. I've been in the medical field for over 30 years, some of the shit I've seen would knock your socks off. From a nurse self injecting and then passing out in a bathroom to a doctor blatantly making up some shit to save his ass during a deposition. Lucky for me, what he wrote the day of in his progress notes and what he said during the deposition didn't quite match and not a damn thing happened to him, he picked up his butchery practice and moved 500 miles away to torture more souls.  |
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#8
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10-31-2013, 11:50 AM
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 My Rank: FIRST SERGEANT Poster Rank:417 Male Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 2,771
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
I feel so bad for that poor woman, she ended up homeless so I guess she didn't sue. |
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#10
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10-31-2013, 07:21 PM
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| ★The Queen★ Poster Rank:67 Female Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 23,498
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Mentioned: 95 Post(s) Quoted: 3083 Post(s)
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Re: Should Colleagues Report Medical Mistakes?
There have been several shows called, "When Surgical Tools Get Left Behind," on tv. Some are on youtube.com VERY scary and shocking stuff! And some are very large objects! |
