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Patients urged to guard against care errors

February 5, 2007 — 8:01pm ET
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medical errors
patient safety
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Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

According to research by the Harvard School of Public Health, about 34 percent of patients say they or their families have been affected by a medical error. For people with chronic illnesses, the percentage rises to a frightening 50 percent. This may be, in part, because doctors aren't spending a lot of time listening to patients, interrupting after about 23 seconds, studies suggest. Realistically, it also comes from the inevitable ongoing process errors that occur during the routine provision of care--including "never" errors like wrong-site surgery.

For these reasons, experts are increasingly suggesting that patients stay on guard in medical settings, and in particular, play a larger role in medical safety in hospitals. To get patients to do this, it will take a cultural change, as patients typically assume that they should blindly follow the orders of doctors and medical personnel, says Dennis O'Leary, JCAHO's president. To promote patient participation in hospital safety, JCAHO has launched a new program called "Speak Up" to encourage patients to report safety concerns. Patient advocates are also placing an emphasis on getting family members to keep their eyes open for care errors.

For more information on the study:
- read this USAToday piece

Related Articles:
Study: Patients define medical errors broadly. Report
Cutting down on hospital errors. Report
JCAHO seeks input on patient safety goals. Report

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By Swaminathan Subramaniam, MD, PhD | Posted 12:01pm | February 7, 2007

In the past 7 years, since my father has been taking antiepileptic medication, there have been 7 instances of documented errors in diagnosis/treatment. Out of the 7 times, on three separate occasions Tegrital plain was mistakenly subsituted for Tegrital CR with a noticeable worsening of his condition. As a trained physician-pharmacologist I was fairly quick to pick up the mistake and rectify. I wonder about the fate of other senior citizens who may not have trained family members involved in their care. I am disgusted by the failure of the market (physicians) to adopt simple IT tools that would have prevented many of these silly erorrs which have dreadful consequences for the patient.

By Swaminathan Subramaniam, MD, PhD | Posted 12:01pm | February 7, 2007

In the past 7 years, since my father has been taking antiepileptic medication, there have been 7 instances of documented errors in diagnosis/treatment. Out of the 7 times, on three separate occasions Tegrital plain was mistakenly subsituted for Tegrital CR with a noticeable worsening of his condition. As a trained physician-pharmacologist I was fairly quick to pick up the mistake and rectify. I wonder about the fate of other senior citizens who may not have trained family members involved in their care. I am disgusted by the failure of the market (physicians) to adopt simple IT tools that would have prevented many of these silly erorrs which have dreadful consequences for the patient.

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