Where Medical
Errors Occur and Steps You Can Take to Avoid
Them
By Carolyn M.
Clancy, M.D.
December 18, 2007
You don’t have to
read medical journals to know that serious, even
deadly, medical errors take place too often when
people get health care.
Just last month,
many Americans were shocked when they heard the
infant twins of actor Dennis Quaid and his wife
were accidentally given a dosage of a drug that
was 1,000 times stronger than what was
prescribed. (The infants were in the hospital
receiving treatment for an infection.)
The twins and
another patient who also got too much of the
drug are doing better, according to news
reports. The hospital is investigating why the
mistake happened and how to prevent it from
happening again.
As terrible as
this experience was, these patients were luckier
than many other victims of medical errors.
Between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each
year in hospitals as a result of medical errors,
according to
a major study. That makes errors the eighth
leading cause of death, ahead of motor vehicle
accidents, breast cancer, and AIDS.
Most of the time
we hear about medical errors happening in
hospitals. But they can occur anywhere you get
health services or drugs, including doctors’
offices, clinics, surgery centers, pharmacies,
or your home.
The number of
people who die or are injured from medical
errors is shocking. Many of these errors could
have been prevented. Hospitals and doctors are
taking steps to make sure that health care is
safe. We are getting better, but we still have a
lot of work to do.
Fortunately, you
can take steps to reduce the chance of a medical
error happening to you or a loved one. My
agency, the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality (AHRQ), has developed a fact sheet for
patients that explains what you can do to
prevent medical errors.
The most
important thing you can do is to be an active
member of your or your family’s health care
team. This means asking your doctor, nurse, or
pharmacist questions and speaking up if you have
concerns.
AHRQ’s
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors
gives advice on how to reduce the chance of
mistakes occurring when you get a new
prescription or health care services. We
recommend you:
- Make sure
all of your doctors know every medicine you
are taking. This includes prescription and
over-the-counter medicines as well as
vitamins and herbs.
- Make sure
your doctor knows about any allergies and
reactions you have had to drugs.
- Ask for
information about your medicine in words you
can understand. Ask questions when your
doctor writes a prescription for you. Talk
to your pharmacist when you pick up your
prescription.
- Choose a
hospital, if possible, where many patients
have had the same procedure or surgery you
need.
- Make sure
all the health care workers involved in your
care are familiar with your health
information.
- Consider
asking all health care workers who touch you
whether they have washed their hands.
- Ask a friend
or family member to be with you in the
hospital and speak up for you if you can’t.
Medical errors
can happen anywhere and to anyone. Being an
active, involved member of your health care team
is an important way to protect yourself.
I’m Dr. Carolyn
Clancy, and that’s my advice on how to navigate
the health care system.
Resources
AHRQ
20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors
Fact sheet for consumers on how to reduce
medical errors.
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/20tips.htm
Institute
of Medicine, National Academies Press
To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health
System
Report on improving safety in health care.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9728&page=1
Current as of December 2007
Internet Citation:
Where Medical Errors Occur and Steps You Can
Take to Avoid Them. Navigating the Health
Care System: Advice Columns from Dr. Carolyn
Clancy, December 18, 2007. Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/cc/cc121807.htm
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