Some Hospitals Provide Rxs for Error, Dissatisfaction Posted by Daniela at 03/31/08 03:48 PM

You may remember Dennis Quaid from The Parent Trap but nowadays he’s speaking out against medical errors, after his newborn twins were massively overdosed with Heparin causing them to bleed profusely. Heparin is a blood thinner derived from pig intestines which, incidentally, was recalled late last month.

Although the babies are fine now, Quaid has sued heparin manufacturer Baxter and is considering a suit against the hospital: “Individually, nurses, doctors and pharmacists are good people. But they’re hamstrung by working in a broken system that’s obsessed with protecting its bottom line,” he said, as reported by the Health Blog.

Though some criticize Quaid for getting so much media hype, his family is certainly not the only one to experience the failures of our broken health care system. You can watch more stories here.

There are several kinds of preventable medical errors, some life-threatening. The Center for Disease Control reported last year that hospital-acquired infections account for nearly 100,000 deaths each year, or 4.5 hospital infections for every 100 patients. And the Institute of Medicine reported that medication errors harm 1.5 million people every year. With these alarming stats, it’s no surprise that many of us are dissatisfied with some aspects of our health care.

But hospitals aren’t doing enough to prevent risks and reduce patient suffering. That’s why 22 states have already passed laws that give their residents hospital infection rates. Find out if your state made the list!

Quaid is advocating for bar codes at patients’ bedsides to make sure patients are getting the right drug and dosage, while Tort Reform thinks you shouldn’t be allowed to question your doctor if something goes wrong: “You put your money in and you take your chances.” Do you have a better idea? Share it with the group!

comments (2)

1 Posted by Kerry OConnell at 04/01/08 02:27 PM

Heathcare providers have always felt that as long as only 1-2% of the patients are getting infected or harmed that they are doing a pretty good job. What they didn't realize is that the population uses Healthcare much more frequently than ever in history so that even at low percentages it is only a matter of time before you or someone in your immediate family gets seriously harmed. It is also only a matter of time before the rich, the famous, and the powerful like the Quaids get harmed. We are at the early stages of a monumental problem . If you read the "Tipping point" the issues are just starting to mushroom.
There will be many more sad stories like the Quaids. The resulting media attention is a very good thing as it really scares the heathcare industry to the point that they might actually change a few things.
The more profound issue that I have learned this month is that there is a tremendous unwillingness to fix Healthcare systems because fixing opens up liability for thousands of previously harmed patients who could initiate litigation. They would rather take they risk that a small minority of patients will continue to get hurt.

2 Posted by PAR at 04/13/08 07:37 PM

Thank you for a very concise yet descriptive post about the current dosage error discourse. I wonder how hospitals are going to counter these dangerous tendencies to over or wrongly dose their patients. Especially since the majority of the complications occur with child patients. The reason this happens is because the medicines are made for adults and children are less vocal about the way their bodies might be reacting to certain drugs. They would have to make the solution patient-specific which would be timely and therefore costly for them. It will be interesting to see what solutions they decide to enact and if the hospitals will actually follow the new standards. You mentioned that these errors are preventative in your post. What do you think would be the best way for these situations to avoided? I also thought it is very interesting and relevant how you provided the background on Dennis Quaid with his newborn twins. Do you think a main reason that this problem has become so large is that it directly affected a celebrity? I wonder if it would have taken even longer for hospitals to make improvements had the twins been unrelated to a famous actor. I believe this is the exact reason that hospitals have not done anything different until just recently. I completely agree with the comment made on your blog by Kerry O'Connell before me. She mentions that hospitals just want to keep the ratio of mistakes low, not absent. I also found this to be true while researching the subject because the hospitals simply accept that error will occur and if they keep it low enough, they can fly under the radar. Please excuse the pun, but that sounds like a prescription for disaster. I look forward to seeing many improvements in protecting these innocent children and giving Americans the health care they are paying for.