Globally, five patients die every minute due to medical mishaps, including surgical errors, according to the Times of India.
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As a result, India’s medical profession has installed a checklist for doctors to complete and sign prior to all surgeries — elective and emergency. The checklist calls for correct Identification of patient; of procedure and site; consents required; and any unexpected steps of surgery.
India is not alone when it comes to medical mistakes.
Each day, more than 40,000 harmful and/or lethal medical errors occur in the U.S. Preventable medical errors kill about 440,000 patients each year, making medical mistakes the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
One in 25 patients ends up acquiring an infection while in the hospital and 75,000 people die every year as a result.
Medical mishaps are not happening in just one particular type of medical care or procedure. For instance:
- Since 1983, 132 newborns have been abducted from U.S. health care facilities.
- Hundreds of individuals have been caught posing as doctors when, in fact, they did not have a medical degree.
- Misdiagnoses may occur in 10% of all cases, and 30 million prescriptions are improperly dispensed each year in U.S. pharmacies.
- Two in 10,000 surgical patients come out of surgery with a surgical instrument left inside, and an estimated seven patients undergo surgery on the wrong body part each and every day.
- Approximately 12,000 people die from unnecessary surgery.
Here are eight ways to protect yourself:
1. If undergoing surgery, ask what type of equipment will be used, and how you will be protected from lasers, cables and flammable gases. If you have more than one tube, ask medical staff to trace the tube back to its site of origin, each and every time a medication is administered to ensure the correct one is being used.
2. If in doubt, ask to have the biopsy repeated and/or get a second (or third) opinion.
3. Before surgery, confirm the correct location of the surgery — both body part and side — with the nurse and surgeon. Make sure the surgeon has clearly marked the correct site. Do not be shy about doing this.
4. Whenever possible, opt for an ultrasound or MRI instead of a CT scan, as they do not use ionizing radiation to produce the image.
5. Each time hospital staff enters your room, ask them to wash their hands and change gloves, if you haven’t seen them do it.
6. If you or a loved one is in critical condition and need immediate attention, call your family physician before or on the way to the hospital, and ask him or her to call the emergency room on your behalf.
7. When getting an MRI, make sure there is no metal on, in or around you, anywhere in the room.
8. If you need surgery, ask your surgeon if you really need anesthesia or if a local anesthetic would be sufficient.
Medical errors are a serious public health problems. Accurate measurements of the exact numbers of errors is essential, but a system to track those numbers has yet to be put into place. As a result, the public is largely unaware of just how many medical errors occur each year.
The World Health Organization reports that while there is a 1 in 1 million chance an individual will be harmed during air travel, there is a 1 in 300 chance a patient will be harmed during health care.