Are Medical Errors on the Rise? A Look at Recent Cases and Statistics

[zoobyshoe]

They had the room number wrong, the real patient was across the hall.

I wonder if they were censured in any way. A mistake like that is so stupid it's hard to believe the hospital would want any of them around anymore, but, depending on how short of help they were it's unlikely much happened to them.

 

[zoobyshoe]

No, not sick, just a klutz, my dog broke my fingers and I have allergies.

Actually, were I you, I'd probably check into what you can do about getting that doctor who misread your x-rays into trouble. A complaint to the AMA or whatever. And give the dog away.

 

[juvenal]

There's quite a few people whom I know who have gone to medical school (and some have finished) and there's no way I would trust them for my own medical care, even with their diplomas from top-notch schools.

Like one of my freshman year roommates - that guy was a total freak. Doctor somewhere in Florida now.

And one of my brothers had this roommate (Harvard undergrad, Yale med school) who was also a complete freak. And his ability was limited to studying hard - so that he was kind of good at textbook-based learning, but I know that he would be just horrible at situations that required some free-thinking.

Hell, one of my younger brothers is in med school, and I'm not sure I would trust his competence either. Plus you have all these sleep-deprived residents out there.

I'd recommend reading Jerome Groopman's book - Second Opinions. Groopman and Atul Gawande have written some great articles in The New Yorker about medicine and medical errors.