The Pros And Cons Of Medical Errors

Josie King was eighteen months old when she was admitted to John Hopkins Hospital. She came in with serve burns all over her body, she got these Burns from scorching water. Ten days after she was admitted in the pediatric intensive care unit at Hopkins, the doctors saw that her burns were healing faster than they suspected, so she was going to be released soon. Then everything fell apart, Josie started wanting to drink water constantly, she was getting dehydrated. Sorrel King, Josie’s father, told the hospital staff what was going on with his daughter. They consulted with the parents to put her back on fluids, and keep her overnight. One of the doctors however, ordered a high dose of narcotic, even thought it was the right approach, without

A medical error is not reasonably expected result of normal course of action, unsafe practice of medicine, or an outcome that was not anticipated. Medical errors can happen everywhere in the hospital, here are some examples; a patient on a low-salt diet given a high salt meal, treating the wrong patient, surgical equipment, being left inside the body during surgery, and even wrong site surgery. Errors also happen when doctors and their patients have problems communicating. For example, a recent study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that doctors often do not do enough to help their patients make informed decisions (Saintsing 354). Uninvolved and uninformed patients are less likely to accept the doctor 's choice of treatment and less likely to do what they need to do to make the treatment work (Saintsing 356,357). Errors are all too frequent in medicine, Building a Safer Health System estimated that as many as 98,000 deaths, due to a medical error, occurs in the United States (Laure 770).

The emotion aspect of an error is colossal. The families of the patient struggle with recovery. When the error happens, relatives often guilt themselves for not keeping close watch on their loved ones. In one case, the family of a man with drepanocytosis (sickle cell anemia), a blood disorder, repeatedly warned health care workers to not administer disambiguation, which

She struggled to come back into serious terms, she blamed herself for everything that happened to her brother. Even when patients’ suspected mistakes mere being made, many feared that confronting medical staff, this might lead to farther injury (Thomas 769). The patients didn’t want to get treated wrong, their life was on the line. Even when the patient is told by the doctor an error happened, it effects them not only physically, but emotionally. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), many patients develop fears after being told an error occurred (Langreth 76). They wouldn’t step foot in the hospital, or any other medical related building. This led to the patient developing nosocomephobia, the fear of hospitals.

The involved physicians struggle with the aftermath also. The emotional impact of a medical error not only effects the families and friends, it effected the staff that helped that patient. Physicians and others in healthcare have learned to value medical errors. When a medical error happens the staff could develop, sleeping complications, anxiety about future errors, they lose confidence (Schwappach 840). The specialty of the physicians effected are various. They blame themselves even though it could have been another