In our last post, we discussed the medical malpractice epidemic and how risky it is to seek medical care and treatment here in Indiana, Illinois, and the rest of this country. People are dying from preventable injuries caused by mistakes made in their care and treatment by health care providers.
Medical errors are recognized as one of the top three causes of death in this country, causing more deaths each year than motor vehicle accidents.
Patient safety and the present danger facing patients in health care remains a “public health issue” according to the expert panel’s report to the National Patient Safety Foundation entitled “Free From Harm: Accelerating Patient Safety Improvement Fifteen Years After To Err Is Human.”
What Is Causing Rampant Medical Errors and Patient Deaths?
What’s going on? In the September 2017 study into patient deaths caused by medical errors released by the University of Chicago and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 23 potential causes of medical errors are identified.
Medical error is defined as medical mistakes that “… sometimes result in no harm, while other times they may result in additional or prolonged treatment, emotional distress, disability, or death. These types of mistakes are called medical errors.” Report page 8.
Most Common Medical Errors That Harm Patients
According to the study, it is in diagnosis that most mistakes are made. Either the medical problem was not diagnosed (59%), or there was a wrong diagnosis. Almost half (46%) of the medical errors were reported to be from mistakes in treatment, testing, or surgery. Report, page 13.
In an earlier Johns Hopkins report, fatal medical errors were found to have been caused by the following:
- Staff without proper skills and training
- Provider error in judgment
- Provider error in care
- Complications in surgery that are not caught and treated (undiagnosed)
- computers going down
- giving the wrong medication
- giving the wrong dosage in medication.
The Johns Hopkins report recommends the following steps be undertaken to stop patient deaths caused by medical errors:
- making errors more visible when they occur so their effects can be intercepted;
- having remedies at hand to rescue patients; and
- making errors less frequent by following principles that take human limitations into account.
California Response to Patient Deaths: Online Transparency
Obviously, the growing epidemic of patient deaths means that so far there has been no resolution within the health care industry of this threat to human life, maybe because the admission of the severity of the problem is perceived as a threat by the industry itself (as discussed in our prior post).
However, in the State of California things may be changing. This week, a partnership between Hospital Quality Institute (HQI), the California Hospital Association and the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) was announced with the specific goal to “accelerate the reduction of medical errors and eliminate preventable patient deaths in hospitals across the Golden State.”
This partnership is creating a “digital dashboard” of up-to-date hospital patient safety data that can be accessed online by patients and their families as well as hospitals, care facilities, providers, and physicians.
Featured in the online information will be five “quality of care” measures:
- central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI);
- surgical site infections;
- C-section birth rates;
- sepsis mortality rates; and
- venous thromboembolism.
From Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation:
“Implementing evidence-based practices to eliminate preventable patient harm and publicly disclosing the results are the best way we know for hospitals to eliminate preventable deaths. We applaud California hospitals for taking the bold steps necessary to no longer simply hope for ‘zero,’ but rather to plan for ‘zero’ and achieve the goal. We believe California hospitals will become the safest in the nation.”
Medical Malpractice Claims for Justice after Preventable Death from Error
Hopefully, the example given by the California’s new “digital dashboard” will work toward better medical care in California and the rest of the nation.
Until the medical profession takes the reins to solve this problem of epidemic proportions and recognized public health issue, countless malpractice victims will die as a result of its continued irresponsibility or incompetency.
Today, victims’ families and loved ones must deal with tragedy and grief and loss. Justice for these preventable deaths caused by patient care and treatment remain in legal claims based upon medical malpractice, hospital malpractice, and wrongful death statutes.
Perhaps it will be through the courts and legal claims for justice filed against the medical professionals that this public health epidemic can finally be faced and resolved.
For more, see:
- Medical Malpractice in Illinois 2016: When Health Care Mistakes Hurt or Kill the Patient
- Medical Malpractice in Indiana 2016: When Doctors Make Mistakes and People Are Hurt or Killed
- Suing Clinics: Can You Sue In-Store Clinics for Medical Mistakes? Yes
- Public Citizen Report on Doctor Discipline by State Medical Boards: Its Not Good and Risk of Medical Malpractice Remains High
It is unacceptable to have anyone, in any state, hand over their care and treatment to a doctor or hospital and die as a result of that trust. Let’s be careful out there!
