by June Koppang

Created on: August 04, 2008   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

Hospital Errors-What the patient doesn't know might hurt-now that is something to really think about, long and hard.

Most of us have found ourselves in a hospital at one time or another and felt pretty helpless. But we should be more aware of our surroundings and not leave everything up to the staff on duty. If we are not well enough to pay attention ourselves, someone in our family should be there to watch everything , so that there will not be a hospital error.

I believe most hospitals are reluctant to admit mistakes. I think it would go a long way in public relations if they would only admit it when they do something wrong so they could correct it right away.
I guess what prevents this from happening is that the hospitals are so afraid of being sued ,that they try to cover up everything that goes wrong.

The patient or family member should make sure that the correct medication is administered at all times. It is up to the patient to ask what each pill is for and it is up to the patient not to take anything they think is wrong. Maybe some patients don't know they should pay attention-but what they don't know might hurt them.

Also it is up the patient to make sure they get all the tests that their doctor scheduled. Sometimes there is a slip up and an important test is not taken. The patient should keep a lookout for such errors. Hospital workers are only human, and no one is perfect, and hospital errors occur.

Even the food should be watched. It's easy to get someone else's tray and that could be a big mistake because the meals are prepared according to the patients problems. A patient could suffer if they should consume something they shouldn't.

It's important too that the household crew pay attention. The rooms should be kept clean and patients should be given clean gowns and linens every day. Also attention should be paid that the patients are given water and soap to bathe with every day. This is important to their health. Hospitals should pay strict attention to this.

Above all, the hospitals should watch out for procedure mistakes. How often have we heard about someone having the wrong arm or leg amputated. Now that is really a hospital error of great magnitude.

The main thing to remember is that it is up to the patient to take charge of their care. Hospital errors will be made-that can't be helped-people are only human.

When it comes to IV's it's up to the patient to watch the clock and see to it that they get their IV's on time. If the patient s taking antibiotics it's most important that they are administered at the proper time.

There should be enough nurses on the floor so that everyone is taken care of properly. One big problem always is getting a nurse to answer the call button. A lot of calls are not too important so sometimes the nurses are not too fast to respond- but sometimes it might be a matter of life or death. So either they should have more nurses on the floor to answer these calls, or at least have a call button for acute emergencies.

One of the problems is that the hospital workers do their jobs day in and day out and it becomes routine to them-so errors are made.. So maybe some refresher classes might be good.

It is up to everyone to improve the safety record of hospitals and cut down on the hospital errors.
What the patient doesn't know will certainly hurt them. I believe it will take the hospitals, the doctors, all the hospital workers and the patients to cooperate to insure hospital safety.

We can all have better health care in the future if we just all pay more attention. Our lives depend on it.

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