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I've seen medical mistakes that have resulted in patients dieing first hand. Some of them were pretty stupid some down right negligence. There's the idiot factor in all professions. I cried all the way home when I took my husband in for an out patient hernia repair. I had a friend that died from that procedure at one of the hospitals I worked for. I can tell you that MD's are some of the nastiest people in health care. They flit in and out of isolation rooms rarely wearing protective equipment nor washing their hands. My husband needed a simple procedure post op and the MD came into the recovery room finishing his lunch. I asked him politely to please wash his hands. He looked at me like I had two heads and said that he would use sterile gloves. I asked again for him to please wash his hands as well. He ignored my request so I asked my husbands nurse to please go into the room and make sure that he remains sterile. I was quite ticked off at the time. Hospital induced infections cause many serious complications and deaths as well. There's a lot of people in health care that should be in factory jobs instead because they treat people like cattle or assembly work instead of human beings. I hear ya ilovegarlic but sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. You can do everything right and still get the short straw.
I hope to God that when you see this happening you say something.
I've told many drs, nurses, vistors and various staff memebers to either wash or gel when entering and exiting a room. I've had a few of them report me to my director...I don't care...my director backed me up and they got in trouble not me.
People not washing their hands is my biggest pet peeve. We do hand washing audits in our health system and that info (violaters name) is passed along to their director.
My current doc is often sent 2nd opinions for back surgery, and he's loud and doesn't close patient doors, so I've heard a few amusing exchanges where the patient argues that they need surgery while he explains why he feels a more conservative approach is better. Spinal fusions rarely end up with a happy result and there are newer techniques such as micro surgery that are safer.
Another big issue is local doctors always agree with one another, so it's best to have them done as far apart as possible.
When I ruptured two lumbar discs a year ago, I decided to wait and follow the recommendations in Consumer Reports, as confirmed by several friends' experience. Sleep on the floor, walk, NO PT because it makes things worse. My Israeli friend also said, "And pot helps. In Israel, they give us pot for everything." That advice I did without. The radiologist who reviewed my X-ray with me, which I had just to make sure I didn't have a malignancy as the cause, said that in training, the radiologists would tell the surgeons jokingly, "Hurry up and operate before the patient gets better." Well, it worked. Within three months of beginning this program, things were greatly improved. A year later, still fine. And no surgery.
I hope to God that when you see this happening you say something.
I've told many drs, nurses, vistors and various staff memebers to either wash or gel when entering and exiting a room. I've had a few of them report me to my director...I don't care...my director backed me up and they got in trouble not me.
People not washing their hands is my biggest pet peeve. We do hand washing audits in our health system and that info (violaters name) is passed along to their director.
Yes I have said something to staff and to visitors. I recently had a patient with shingles and observed a family member touching the site with her bare hands I asked to to stop and wash her hands. I reminded her how contagious they are. I can't tell you how many times I see staff and family doing things to patients in isolation with out protective gear. It drives me insane, especially when I see kids in there touching everything without protective gear on and running in and out of the room. I had the charge nurse come and talk to them. You wouldn't believe how many people eat in isolation rooms. There are some ignorant nasty people out there. It's been an on going issue with me at the meetings, but in our institution it's all about patient satisfaction vs doing what's right for all of us. Families are allowed to run the show and if they want to crawl in bed with a loved one in isolation without protective gear then that's perfectly acceptable. It's the health care workers that spread everything after all you know.
Why do some of these doctors think we're all so stupid and beneath them?
That's hard to answer without some specifics, but I will tell you from my professional 25 years of experience that some people that have been in the system for a nano second with a loved one think they have all the answers. Or They read something on the internet and think they're better equipped to make decisions, especially over the telephone. I've had to butt heads with family over some of my decisions and tell them that what you want and what your loved one needs are two different things and the patients needs always come before what a family member wants. MD's are in the same difficult situations. Add to that their impossible work schedule and imagine having 20 or so internet intellectuals asking them stupid question after stupid question. I've seen their frustration first hand at work. They also have to deal with stupid staff as well, and there are a lot of those too. I would never want to be an MD.
According to the CDC, "medical mistakes" doesn't even show up on the top 10 list of cause of death. The 5th most common cause of death is "accidents." Perhaps the good doctor lumped "medical mistakes" in with "accidents" and twisted it around to mean that "All Accidents = Medical Mistakes." I can see where that would be convenient, when pushing your agenda. However, it's more likely that it was taken out of context, or perhaps a single word was missing...and it was more like "Medical mistakes fall within the category of accidents - and accidents are the 5th leading cause of death."
The reason people wait so long in ER, is because most of the people waiting there, aren't experiencing an actual emergency. People who experience actual emergencies go first. Everyone else waits. If you are brought in by ambulance because you have a bullet lodged in a lung and half your face is blasted off from another bullet - you get preferential treatment over someone who's coughing up mucus mingled with bits of blood, but is otherwise able to walk himself into the building. That's just how it is. When you're the one with a collapsed lung and your cheek muscle dripping into your mouth, you'll be glad they have that particular policy.
I certainly agree with your views in this matter. I would like to see the data that led him to cite medical mistakes as the #5 cause of death.
As for ER visits, you are absolutely correct. I worked in an ER for a couple of years at an HCA hospital. Many HCS hospitals have billboards that state how long the current wait is to see a physician. This number is meaningless. If the billboard says 30 minutes, I am sure you will be seen in 30 seconds, or less, if you are complaining of chest pain, or if you have severe trauma. If the ambulance brings you in with a 1" splinter, they will dump you in the waiting room, and you are likely to wait a lot longer than 30 minutes.
WHen I went to the ER on Thanksgiving night with shortness of breath, they had me hooked up to the EKG before they even knew who I was or my insurance info. My son gave them that while I was being monitored.
That's hard to answer without some specifics, but I will tell you from my professional 25 years of experience that some people that have been in the system for a nano second with a loved one think they have all the answers. Or They read something on the internet and think they're better equipped to make decisions, especially over the telephone. I've had to butt heads with family over some of my decisions and tell them that what you want and what your loved one needs are two different things and the patients needs always come before what a family member wants. MD's are in the same difficult situations. Add to that their impossible work schedule and imagine having 20 or so internet intellectuals asking them stupid question after stupid question. I've seen their frustration first hand at work. They also have to deal with stupid staff as well, and there are a lot of those too. I would never want to be an MD.
Just browsing on CD health forum, I can see people seeking answers for some serious medical problems.
If it is a serious problem then please see a doctor.
I do understand a doctor's frustration with internet information. However, not all patients do that. As an
educated professional I expect a doctor to be thorough and listen as well as read all the forms I filled out
about my medical history. I expect as a consumer to have a question answered without the superiority
attitude and/or the attitude that I'm wasting his time. I've had some doctors who ruined the quality of
my life and others due to their incompetency. Luckily, I did find physicians who did listen and were
very knowledgeable and also agreed that the others who did the damage were wrong.
Just browsing on CD health forum, I can see people seeking answers for some serious medical problems.
If it is a serious problem then please see a doctor.
I do understand a doctor's frustration with internet information. However, not all patients do that. As an
educated professional I expect a doctor to be thorough and listen as well as read all the forms I filled out
about my medical history. I expect as a consumer to have a question answered without the superiority
attitude and/or the attitude that I'm wasting his time. I've had some doctors who ruined the quality of
my life and others due to their incompetency. Luckily, I did find physicians who did listen and were
very knowledgeable and also agreed that the others who did the damage were wrong.
I agree with your sentiments, 100%. However, this certainly reflects the nature of this forum. Sometimes, the advice that OPs get serves to send them in the right direction as they look for a professional who can help them.
There are certainly excellent surgeons that are not well known.
"World class surgeons" are the ones that professional athletes use because their livelihoods depend on the best results possible.
As soon as a Dr tells me they are the team this or that for a professional sports team i immediately take my leave. I don't want some guy working on me whose only onjective is to repair the problem like i was an animal, the side effects/issues (like my long term health) be damned. Athletes are pieces of meat. They are used to the breaking point, sewn bacv\k together, and put out to entertian for another few years. Every notice that they only play a few years, are crippled when they leave the games, and die young in many cases? It isn't from good living and good health care, trust me.
But, back on topic, i recently had a conversation with a guy who runs one of the large NYC hospitals He said 'we need to get costs down' and the single highest item in our cost base is errors and ommissions: missed medications, wrong medications, wrong treatments, wrong patient, wrong limb sawed off, wrong diagnoses, and wrong tests. He said it accounts for the single largest manageable cost item in our budegt. We have to do something to improve in this area--especaily because it is ridiculous to explain to anyone paying the bill that their costs are high because they make a lot of errors.
It happens, and i understand the environment under which these things happen. But there it is, right from the horses mouth: we make a LOT of mistakes.
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