Worries About Reporting Medical Errors
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 17, 2012
Last week I read a story that mentioned a study that came to this conclusion: Only 14% Of Medical Errors Reported By Hospitals. It's an alarming story, one that undoubtedly is true, but it's the kind of story that leads to hysteria instead of understanding.
Overall, the question comes down to what constitutes an error. For instance, leaving a sponge in a patient after a surgery is definitely an error. Not changing the top sheet between patients in the emergency room is nasty, but that's not considered an error, although OSHA would be all over it if they knew about it.
The standard for reporting errors comes down to what's known as "medical harm". That's kind of a questionable standard because one could say that the act of a medical professional not washing their hands, thus setting up the possibility of viruses and germs spreading, is medical harm, but that's not a reportable offense. When I had an issue with some of the care my grandmother "wasn't" getting while she was an inpatient at the hospital last May I knew that some of what I saw as deficient wasn't reportable officially either, though I did take it to a hospital representative as a complaint.
There are always standards for what's reportable and what's not. Even the story linked to leans toward the fact that hospitals aren't reporting everything because they don't have to. This kind of goes across the board by the way. There are things not reported as it pertains to almost every department in a hospital that end up being errors, yet not officially reportable errors. Heck, there are lots of billing errors every day, yet very few would be considered serious enough to report to anyone.
Strangely enough, we probably should be happy for some of this. Imagine being a hospital employee worrying that you're going to make mistakes every time you do a procedure. That's the type of thing that breeds mistakes, when people are scared to make them. Incompetence is one thing, slight errors that don't lead directly to patient harm are tolerable. We might not like them but we have to be thankful that patients are fine.
I think that I have mention in on one of my previous comments, when a family member and a friend were victims of wrong diagnosis and treatment, however I didn’t know if there is any way to report this mistakes, now it is too late and hope it will not happen in the future, but if it does I will report it to authorities.
Carl, I’m not sure if there are ways where you live. Here, people can either go to hospital administration or file a lawsuit. But not for every little thing; even though we all wish our medical personnel were perfect, they’re not.
I think there is a way or at least that you mention can go to the court, thanks God there was nothing fatal and probably just minor complications in both cases.
Carl, it doesn’t work that way here. There has to be a real reason as well as proof of something that was a true error. Minor errors… nothing to do about them.
I agree with you. Some things are considered too trivial that they don’t deserve reporting. However, I guess we can remind the erring person of his actions to that it will not become a habit.
Yes Donald, there’s always a learning experience to take away from any error.