Breaking the Code of Silence;
Medical Malpractice Kills Tens of Thousands a Year

By Staff Writer
fernandezfirm.com

November 30, 1999 -- In Washington a new report issued by the Institute of Medicine estimates that medical malpractice kills as many as 98,000 hospitalized Americans a year. The Institute is part of the National Academy of Sciences, a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

"These stunningly high risk rates of medical errors are simply unacceptable in a medical system that promises first to 'do no harm,'" wrote William Richardson, President of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Chairman of the Institute Panel that compiled the report.

The report entitle "To Err is Human" - demands major changes in the nation's health-care system to protect patients and suggests that while we may never eradicate medical malpractice and mistakes "errors can be prevented by designing systems that make it hard for people to do the wrong thing and easy for people to do the right thing," Richardson concluded.

The report seeks a 50 percent reduction in medical errors within the next five years and claims there are ways to prevent many of the mistakes. First, doctors' notoriously poor handwriting too often leaves pharmacists squinting at tiny paper prescriptions. Did the doctor order 10 milligrams or 10 micrograms? Does the prescription order call for Premarin, a hormone replacement drug, or the antibiotic Primaxin?

Additionally, too many drug names sound alike causing confusion for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and patient. Consider the painkiller Celebrex and the anti-seizure medication Cerebyx, or Narcan, which treats morphine overdoses, and Norcuron, which can paralyze breathing muscles.

As medical science advances rapidly, many health-care professionals find it difficult to keep up with the latest treatments or newly discovered dangers. Technology poses a hard when device models change from year to year or model to model, leaving doctors fumbling for the right switch.

Finally, most health professionals do not have their competence regularly retested after they become licensed to prsctice medicine and unfortunately, most medical malpractice is only discussed behind closed doors.

The report fount that the health care field more than a decade behind over high-risk industries in improving safety. The report pointed to the transportation industry as a model: Just as airlines limit pilots' flying time so they're rested and alert, so can health care be improved.

Recently, medical researchers have begun coming up with ways to avoid medical errors. Some hospitals now use computerized prescriptions, to avert the handwriting problem. Some hospitals are now using software that warns if a particular patient should not use the prescribed drug.

Many hospitals now mark patients' arms or legs, while the patients are awake, to prevent removal of wrong limb. Anesthesiologists made their field safer by getting manufacturers to standardize anesthesia equipment from one model to the next. The Food and Drug Administration is trying to prevent new drugs from hitting the market with sound-alike names.

However the Institute of Medicine concluded that reducing medical mistakes requires a bigger commitment by health care providers and recommended immediate steps. "Any error that causes harm to a patient is one error too many," claims Dr. Nancy Dickey, Past-President of the American Medical Association.

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