Medical Mistakes Still Take Too Many Lives

In 1999 the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) shook the medical community to its foundation. The IOM estimated that almost 100,000 Americans die in hospitals every year as a consequence of errors.
People were outraged. If a similar number of deaths were caused by airplane crashes or terrorist attacks there would be general panic.
Hospital administrators and health policy wonks placated the public by promising to find ways to avoid many of these preventable mistakes.
Now, five years later, a new report suggests that the IOM estimates were wrong. Instead of 98,000 deaths annually, the number may actually be twice that. The up-to-date analysis suggests that almost 200,000 people die each year from medical mistakes in hospitals and “that there is little evidence that patient safety has improved in the last five years.”
Imagine 390 jumbo jets full of people crashing each year. Or consider that the U.S. loses more lives every six months to medical mistakes than it lost in the entire Vietnam War.
How is it possible that so many errors are being committed? Despite all the high-tech equipment in hospitals, such as CT scans, MRI machinery and cardiac monitors, there is a woeful lack of practical problem solving.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, shocked patients when he declared, “Some grocery stores have better technology than our hospitals and clinics.” Supermarkets keep track of inventory and ring up sales by using bar code scanners. Many hospitals still rely on archaic paper records.
Most doctors continue to write their prescriptions with a pad and pen. Too often these are hard to read, opening the door for misinterpretation and mistakes.
Drug errors are a leading cause of complications and deaths. Far too often the wrong dose or combination may be dispensed. Even hospitals with computer programs designed to check for interactions sometimes give patients an incompatible mix of medications.
Some hospitals are beginning to adopt bar code technology that should reduce the likelihood that a patient will get the wrong drug or the wrong dose. But until systems that can minimize human error are in place everywhere, patients will need to be vigilant.
What can people do to protect themselves and their loved ones from this epidemic of error? First, everyone needs an advocate. When you are in the hospital everything seems strange and scary. You need a family member or friend to be standing by to take notes, ask questions and verify that the correct procedures and medications are being administered.
To help with this process we have prepared a free Medical History and Drug Safety Questionnaire. Anyone who would like a copy, please send a long (no. 10) stamped, self-addressed envelope: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. QH-3, P. O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027.
To err is human, but if your life is on the line you do not want to allow a medical mistake to go undetected. It could cause unnecessary injury or even death.