Re-investigation into the Mistakes Even Good Doctors Make (Something-Sunday Week 5

The article assigned to us this week "When Doctors Make Mistakes" by Atule Gawande pointed towards the systematic failures in medicine that account for latent errors waiting to happen by even the best of doctors. I know that doctors go through an immense amount of preparation, both in school and in a practical sense. However, due to the immense complexity and time-critical situations they are faced with (especially in the ER) they are prone to making mistakes. They shame themselves, and may undergo medical malpractice suits, but this is unfair as the vast majority of the time they are not "incompetent", "unethical" or "negligent". It is simply a part of the job, as humans are imperfect and we make mistakes. Even when we strive for perfection, which we should be, we will undoubtedly come up short.

For this weeks Sunday Something post I wanted to get another sources opinions to see which errors are most common within the medical field. The site I looked at stated that the top ten commonly made mistakes are 1) misdiagnosis- they are under increased pressure in today's society to diagnose a disease because in today's day and age we want to attach labels to everything and believe our health can't start to improve until we have been assigned to a condition 2)Treating the wrong patient- this seems simple enough to get right but patients with similar names are sometimes confused 3) wrong medications- this goes hand in hand with diagnosis but sometimes they don't pay enough attention to other medications/supplements you are taking and there is a negative interaction 4) Lack of hygiene- This seems like a case of negligence but in treatment facilities (like the ER) there is often lots of bodily fluids which cause microbial bacteria which would go undetected by simply a visual inspection 5) Wrongs site surgery- this was addressed in the reading and it could be improved by systematic pre-operative marking 6) Lack of Coordinated Care- Sometimes hospitals get overwhelmed and medical staff are jumping around from patient to patient without proper communication from each member of the medical team 7) Over testing-treating- Again in today's society if there is a problem we want instant gratification, a "quick fix", while in many cases the best option is to leave it alone and let the body work its magic 8)Harmful ER Waits- Like 6 there is sometimes rushes of unplanned patients and not enough staff to attend to everyone immediately This is where prioritization becomes essential 9) Leaving surgical souvenirs- Sometimes surgical instruments aren't noticed to be missing until a patient reports a certain pain post-operation AND 10) allowing air bubbles into blood- this could be deadly and requires constant care and attentiveness of medical staff

http://www.newsmax.com/Health/Health-News/medical-error-doctor/2015/07/07/id/653768/

And lastly a parody of what a truly bad doctor is, since we are stuck on all this realistic pessimism that doctor's are doomed to make mistakes. Just be thankful the following isn't your care provider ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsOwXrsRvx8