Hospitals are supposed to be places of rest and recuperation, where trained professionals will give you the care and treatment you need to get better. Although this is true for a lot of people, a surprisingly large number of Americans end up getting worse instead.
According to a study by Johns Hopkins, medical errors have skyrocketed to the third top cause of death in the United States. The institution collared medical death data for over eight years and revealed that a staggering 10 percent of all deaths in the country, or over 250,000 deaths, were due to medical errors.
But what are some of the most common causes of medical deaths in hospitals? The list below will reveal some shocking ways a medical facility can drop the ball on your healthcare.
Charting Errors
Paperwork and documentation are often seen as tedious facets of healthcare, but all these files serve a vital purpose. One mistake on your patient chart or health records can lead to baffling consequences.
For example, one woman’s medical record claimed she had given birth twice when she had never been pregnant at all. Although the majority of these mistakes are harmless and inconsequential to long-term healthcare, it’s not hard to see how these mistakes can lead to disasters.
Without reliable electronic medical records, you may be given medication you’re allergic to or misdiagnosed with a different disease. Correcting medical records can also be difficult if they aren’t consolidated in electronic format. You could end up wasting your time rectifying medical errors when you should be seeking treatment.
Hospital-Acquired Infections
Hospitals attract sick people and medical staff must continually sterilize their environment and be vigilant to ensure no cross-contamination occurs. However, less than ideal circumstances can lead to patients developing hospital-acquired infections or HAIs. These refer to contracting diseases while staying in a medical facility. Common kinds of HAIs include pneumonia, infections around recent surgery sites, and urinary tract infections.
You’re more likely to develop an HAI if you have a hospital roommate who has one of them already, if you’ve been staying in the ICU for too long, and if your immune system has been compromised by a pre-existing illness. Unless your hospital is careful, you have a one in ten chance of contracting an HAI.
Miscommunication Among Doctors
A few decades ago, you would have probably relied on one doctor for most of your life. However, unless you live in a small community, you probably no longer have one doctor who has intimate knowledge of your healthcare. You’re now probably at the mercy of whichever doctor is on call when you check yourself in.
Because of the lack of direct communication between attending physicians, especially if you’re getting treatments from different hospitals, there’s a chance they’ll end up causing errors. Unless they have a reliable form of medical or health record they can refer to, one doctor can end up ordering repeated tests or even unnecessary procedures.
Miscommunication can also occur between the on-duty nurse and your physician, which may lead to you getting the wrong medication or an incorrect dosage.
Misdiagnosis
Medical professionals today can now rely on advanced technology to confirm their diagnosis. Modern imaging technology is more reliable than ever, providing in-depth imagery of your entire body. That doesn’t mean doctors aren’t fallible.
According to experts, between 40,000 to 80,000 people in the United States die annually because of misdiagnosis.
Doctors are human, after all, and subject to the same mistakes everyone can make. They could end up giving people a life-changing and fatal diagnosis when they’re actually only experiencing a mildly inconvenient disease. Even worse, they may brush off the symptoms of a deadly illness and you could end up ignoring a disease and letting it fester. This is why, when in doubt, always ask for a second opinion.
Never Events
Everyone has heard of hospital horror stories: horrific instances during surgery, unnecessary medical procedures, and the like. Medical professionals call these instances “never events” because they’re never supposed to happen and yet, somehow, they routinely do.
In the United States, approximately 4,000 surgeries end up with never events. According to a study conducted over 20 years, 71 percent of all never events end up with the patient in the morgue.
The most common type of never event is when surgeons and surgical staff unintentionally leave a foreign object inside a patient during an operation. These types of objects can range from surgical clips to sponges and even medical instruments. Or they could end up operating on the wrong part of the body or doing the wrong procedure. Worst of all is when they wind up cutting open the wrong patient. Only vigilance and thorough protocols can protect you from these types of events.
Awareness of such mistakes in a hospital allows you to be cautious and critical about your health care. With the right information, you’re empowered to inquire and make suitable choices when meeting a health care professional.
