Shocking New Study on Surgical Errors

In Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, I identify two types of surgical mistakes. I call them "botched procedures," where the surgeon just doesn't do the operation well or leaves instruments in your body, and "wrong procedures," where for example, the surgeon operates on the wrong knee. I say, among other precautions "you should recite the procedure to the doctor when you are seen right before the procedure. 'Hi, Dr. Smith, you're replacing my left knee, correct?' Before the anesthesiologist asks if you are ready to be put to sleep, remind him of any drug to which you are allergic."

Johns Hopkins Hospital released a study recently which supports this advice. The study estimated there are over four thousand malpractice claims filed each year for what it calls "never events," that is things that just should never happen, like sponges or instruments left in the patient or operating on the wrong part of the body. These never events led to permanent injury in 32.9% of patients. These are big numbers and you can do a lot as a proactive patient to avoid being in those statistics.

Should You Get A Second Opinion

     “So you want a second opinion?” the doctor said. “Then listen up and I'll tell you again." As I point out in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, (for more information about Patient Confidential, please click here), that was not only a joke decades go, but too often a reality. Patients did not question the doctor. I believe the current reality is totally different, or should be. I write in Patient Confidential, "I think, and I believe most doctors think, that [second opinions] are a good idea in the right circumstances. The right circumstances include when a malady may be relatively serious and that there may be alternative treatments or perhaps even alternative diagnoses."

     The overarching theme I "preach" in Patient Confidential is that the patient is not a bystander. The patient must be an active participant, a partner with the healthcare providers, in order to maximize the diagnosis and treatment of the patient's medical problems and to minimize the risks of bad outcomes. Patients need to ask questions, do research and educate themselves. But, the ultimate medical judgment must be made by a medical professional. The way to insure that the diagnosis of a serious medical problem is right and that the treatment is the best available, is to get a second opinion. I have gotten many second opinions, and not once did the first doctor do anything but commend and support my decision. If your doctor discourages you from getting a second opinion, except if your situation is an emergency where there may be no time to get a second opinion, you need a new doctor, not just a new opinion.

 

"Patient Passports" Inform Doctors and Improve Outcomes

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, discussed the developing idea of "Patient Passports." A Patient Passport is a written document which contains all the basic medical information about the patient, but also has a place for the patient to express concerns about quality of life, the need for medically related services, such as counseling, and many other matters. These important items are often overlooked in the brief visit with the doctor.

 

The article says, "Many patients are afraid to ask doctors questions for fear of appearing to challenge them [doctors], studies have found, and doctors often don’t take the time to listen to their input. Yet when patients and families are fully involved in medical decisions and able to express themselves, studies show it can result in better patient outcomes, lower risk of medical errors and fewer readmissions after discharge."

In the Introduction to my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, I stress the critical importance of the patient's becoming informed. I say, "Careful patients and their caregivers now ask questions and smart doctors not only answer questions but give patients and caregivers full explanations up front, before the questions come." I then apply this principle to all the various healthcare encounters, the office visit, tests, hospitalization and so on.  Becoming informed is so important that in the Afterword, I say, "If you learned nothing else, I hope you learned how critical it is that you be proactive in your healthcare. If you don't understand something or it doesn't sound right, ask, ask, and ask some more."