Insider Tips for Avoiding Hospital Mistakes for Yourself or Someone You Love

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Sharon starts out by saying, “It is my intent to educate and not to frighten people.” He goes on to say that hospitals are a necessary part of our lives, but that “because we do not have the presence of mind to scrutinize the services they provide, we put too much trust in doctors, nurses, and corporate management. We keep quiet for fear of antagonizing the people on whom we depend for survival.” However, this is a frightening book. Everyone who might have a loved one in the hospital at some time should read it. As a registered nurse who has been reviewing hospital charts for malpractice attorneys for the last 18 years, Sharon has homed in on a number of “repetitive, preventive calamities” that occur regularly in hospitals all over the country.

I don’t know whether it was a good editorial choice to quote so many actual cases from his files—I suppose it’s all in a day’s work after 18 years, but for those of us and our loved ones who might be on the receiving end of the calamity, it makes for pretty grim and perhaps too memorable reading. In fact, I don’t recommend reading this if you are the one who is going to be in the hospital in the immediate future—ask the person who will accompany you to read it. If you aren’t planning to have anyone accompany you, read the first couple chapters, and you may change your mind. An alert, watchful attitude, and a willingness to ask questions and speak up loudly if something doesn’t seem right are necessary, and most of us can’t summon that kind of focus when we are the patient. And if the patient is perceived as a “complainer,” that can affect the quality of care one receives.

However, you can skip lot of the histories and just read his excellent descriptions of how to choose a hospital or a doctor, what to watch out for, how to plan in advance to prevent mishaps and what to do in the event that something goes wrong. He identifies these areas as meriting special attention:

1) Injuries that happen in a particular area of the hospital, like the emergency room or operating suite, because of inherent defects in hospital design and methodologies of delivering services.

2) Hospital-induced complications such as bedsores and infections which can be prevented by proper care from staff.

3) Patients being deprived of proper treatment because financial incentives have caused hospital executives to decide against more effective technologies, and patients are never informed of other choices that exist.

4) Hospital-induced anemia—too much blood can be drawn for lab tests, especially from patients in intensive care, and the patient can suffer multiple complications, including death, as a result.

5) Nursing staff levels in many hospitals are so low that the quality of care suffers.

6) Typical medications errors, especially narcotic overdose causing respiratory depression and death, often associated with self-administered pain meds.

7) Nursing staff does not respond to patient calls for help because they see patient as emotionally needy and trying to get attention.

8) Problems caused by financially-motivated early discharge: sending patients home without necessary followup tests or with equipment too complicated to be cared for in the home.

Now we could add incurable infectious diseases picked up in the hospital, and the extreme importance of being sure that medical professionals wash their hands or change their gloves before they touch you.

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