More casualties... Listen to this: A 2002 report on medication errors -- the second of its kind released by MedMARx, an anonymous independent tracking program -- shows that hospitals are making an alarming number of mistakes in administering prescription drugs to patients under their care.
This isn't just about the occasional nurse who forgets to give a patient his evening laxative - it's about an astounding number of medication errors (over 37,000 in the year 2000 alone), many of which led to serious injury and sometimes death. And what's really mind-boggling is this: The report's data was compiled from only 184 participating facilities! That's an average of more than 200 incidents per hospital, and those are just the mistakes that get reported. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a much more detailed report on medical errors called To Err is Human. It estimated as many as 98,000 patients die in hospitals EVERY YEAR from preventable errors including improper medication. So this is a real risk, and one that I've written about before in the Daily Dose. Actions to take:
Aside from never allowing yourself to be admitted into the hospital, try to avoid taking so many of the nasty pills that the drug industry makes seem so helpful and harmless for the little afflictions of everyday life. Then, if you end up in the hospital, at least you won't be on a bunch of pills when you walk in the door. If it's too late for you to do either one of those things, there is one more option: If you (or a member of the family) are severely ill or scheduled for surgery, consider hiring a private nurse while you're in the hospital. You need a watchman, who can protect you from medication errors, see that you get the pain relief you need, and call for help if things go wrong, as I advised in Real Health (October 2001). Sounds expensive, I know, but here's the bottom line: She can save your life. Helping you help yourself,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD |
