Solid Geekery

In the most recent report addressing medical mistakes in the U.S., studies revealed that nearly 3% of patients in the nation’s hospitals are victims of hospital errors. In addition, these patients have a 25% chance of dying from the mistake. Three percent of patients does not sound like a substantial amount; however, considering the amount of people hospitalized each year, it is estimated that 195,000 people die annually from hospital mistakes. Of course, these numbers are only reflecting the incidences that are actually reported.

The Watchdog is Born

Being a recurrent victim of hospital mistakes, I have become an expert level “watchdog” of hospital personnel. Though I may just be extremely unlucky when it comes to treatment in the hospital, I can honestly say that during a month’s long stay, I observed at least one mistake made by doctors, nurses, and staff every day. Now, I do realize that being in the medical field myself I may be more critical of healthcare because I know what SHOULD be taking place, but herein lies my greatest concern… Who watches out for children, the elderly, or anyone else who isn’t privy to drug names, appropriate dosages, patient rights, etc.?

What to Watch Out for to Avoid Hospital Mistakes

There are some procedures from my experience that should be closely monitored to avoid any “oopsies”:

Some useful websites that suggest ways to prevent some of these mistakes from happening include:
www.aarp.org/wiseuse/

www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/Articles/a2003-07-02-bruised.html

www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/Articles/a2004-10-27-what_to_look_for.html

www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhealth/Articles/a2003-08-07-safetypractices.html

Welcome the Problem Patient

Be prepared, though, that when you do point out mistakes made by the hospital, your complaints are not always heard by welcoming ears. Verbalizing my concerns caused me to become the “problem patient”. In fact, comments in my file (the way in which I got my hands on this is neither here nor there) consisted of: “difficult to handle”, “bad attitude”, “agitated”, and “a nuisance”. Silly me for thinking that I should leave the hospital in a better condition than when I came. My best advice is if you don’t think something feels and/or looks right, it probably isn’t, so you need to make an issue of it.