One of four Bay Staters say they or their loved ones have fallen victim to alarming medical mistakes like misdiagnoses and faulty treatments, according to a bombshell report that has local experts calling for more action to prevent such errors among state hospitals and agencies.
"This is a problem of just incredible magnitude," said Barbara Fain, director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error, which funded the survey. "From our perspective there needs to be a greater urgency around making greater progress."
Misdiagnoses were the largest problem among those surveyed, comprising 51 percent of people who had encountered errors. Thirty-eight percent say they were given the wrong surgery or test, and 34 percent say they were given bad instructions.
The survey, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, asked 1,224 Massachusetts residents if they or someone close to them had experienced a medical misstep within the last five years.
The survey is one of several new reports funded by the Lehman Center, named after a Boston Globe health reporter who died in 1994 after an overdose of chemotherapy treatments.
Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis who led the survey, said the results speak volumes about how little progress has been made since Lehman's death.
"Twenty years ago there was an event that spurred national and statewide movement with an awful death of a reporter," Blendon said. "What do you have 20 years later? You have an issue that's still a problem in people's lives. This is not a problem that went away decades later."
Patricia Folcarelli, senior director of patient safety for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said better systems need to be put into place to prevent human error. "The major take-away is that we still have a lot of work to do," said Folcarelli.
She said the sheer number of health care workers involved in the treatment of each patient — and breakdowns in communication among them — is the major problem behind these errors. "There's multiple people delivering care, and there are a lot of opportunities for information to get lost in the hand-off," she said. "The devil happens in the transitions."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Medical mistake numbers alarm experts
Dengan url
http://emberemas.blogspot.com/2014/12/medical-mistake-numbers-alarm-experts.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Medical mistake numbers alarm experts
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Medical mistake numbers alarm experts
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar