US is highest on the list of committing MEDICAL ERRORS

[Deja Q]

And yet we pay such high prices for "the best health care in the world".

http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20051103-025505-2409r

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. healthcare system has the highest rate of medical errors and out-of-pocket costs compared to six other countries, according to a survey released Thursday.

But the new study also underscored the urgent need for all of the countries surveyed -- the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany -- to do better in areas including quicker access to doctors and assuring that medical records aren't lost as a patient moves from doctor to doctor, so tests aren't repeated or the wrong drugs prescribed.

The article has more, much more.


But with a history like mine, who the hell needs this sort of study?!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. duh. you miss the point. Litigation is causing those errors.

we have a malpractice crisis! Lawyers are ruining . . . wait. we have the highest medmal error rates?

never mind.

[Deja Q]

2. Litigation happens because prices are exorbitant and doctors ducks...

Quack quack quack...

If you don't take the time, you will make mistakes... if not more mistakes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. all too true. But do not ignore the problems caused by insurers.

those blood-sucking vampire-based- devils will find a way to make a profit. any and every way.

[Career Prole]

3. Well it's obviously those outrageous court awards! Makes our doctors

more nervous...and...and...oh yeah! The outrageous malpractice insurance premiums they have to pay because of those outrageous court awards! Doctors have to stay up all night working the drive-thru at Whataburger to cover the outrageous malpractice insurance premiums!
Tort reform! Tort reform! Tort reform!
:bounce:
:sarcasm:

[Snotcicles]

10. I think it's all due to Bill Frist being to busy in the

Senate to video diagnose. Every patient.

[Horse with no Name]

4. I am not saying that National Healthcare would 100% solve this problem

However, one of the biggest reasons that errors occur is understaffing or overworked staff.
If the hospital didn't have to worry about the private pay patients/inadequate insurance reimbursement...I would suspect this problem might take care of itself.

[Luna_Chick]

6. My pathologist friend in Georgia

consistently warns me to not see a doctor unless I'm bleeding out of a major artery, and even then it's debatable. Yes, a pathologist, but still..she works with doctors constantly and says the problems of error, misdiagnosis, etc., are staggering. SHE is even reluctant to see doctors anymore.

[NMDemDist2]

7. a co-worker's brother in law died two days ago

the doc was stretching his esophagus and pushed too hard, punctured his large intestine.

he died in two weeks of major septicemia, 48 years old with a wife and two teen aged children

what a waste

[kahleefornia]

8. not to make this a "let's share medical stories"

thread - but my brother was on all kinds of heartburn medications and special diets for over a year before they figured out his gall bladder wasn't working. A minor thing - but that's what makes it frustrating. It should have been easy to diagnose.

Not to mention the docs who tell people to stop taking anti-depressants as soon as they start feeling better (uh..hello...they feel better because of the medication!!) I've nursed a few friends and family through THAT mistake. Not fun.

[Igel]

9. But that's what the OP has listed: a "let's share medical stories"

story.

"Specifically, the survey found that 34 percent of Americans polled reported at least one of four types of medical errors, including mistakes in treatment or care, incorrect drug or dose, lab/test result error or delay in notification of abnormal results. The next-highest error rate was in Canada at 30 percent, while Britain had the lowest mistake rate at 22 percent."

They didn't confirm the reports (even a sample), or control to make sure "delay" meant the same thing. It's basically a survey saying, "Tell me, did your doctor goof?" And that depends on knowledge by the patient, willingness to share, and the same standards for 'goof'.

The article makes a point. It's just not a very rigorous one.