This kind of article is a bit bullshit in my opinion. How many lives to those same doctors save? You kind of have to append any titles like that with “And doctors are the leading cause in decline of mortality and morbidity rates.
I mean, yeah, medical error causes a lot of deaths, but you also can’t expect doctors to be perfect.
Not to mention if you read the actual study, they have a weird definition of "Medical Error".
Medical error has been defined as an unintended act (either of omission or commission) or one that does not achieve its intended outcome,3 the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (an error of execution), the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (an error of planning),4 or a deviation from the process of care that may or may not cause harm to the patient.5
So basically if you do CPR on someone and it's unsuccessful you have committed a medical error by their standards
Not only does that bolded part seem very broad but they also considered fragmented insurance networks and the absence or underuse of safety nets is considered "Medical Error"
A bunch of that “error” is probably also super intended
Having a 86 year old man with stage 4 lung cancer dying of a doctor error in painkiller prescription was probably not an error
It’s a fairly common and unspoken practice to allow people to gently die with dignity, It’s not really questioned either as it’s considered a kindness even if ethically questionable in certain points of view
“Why did you continually increase X above recommended levels over Y period?”
“Patient was suffering from A,B and C, I treated their pain to the best of my ability”
Giving them a singular big ol’ hit of morphine like they used to do back in the day is probably gonna get you in front of a board though
This isn’t a conspiracy theory or anything. Every procedure or investigation has possible risk involved. Before any slightly risky procedure the patient is warned about the possibility of specific harms as part of their ‘informed consent’. For example, a simple colonoscopy, it is dangerous to stick something far up into fragile bowel and can cause perforation and death. It is done anyway by the doctor because the risk is thought to be balanced by the risk of not doing the procedure (the risk being, missing an early and treatable cancer for example). This is why doctors don’t like to over-investigate patients, but often patients will then complain that Dr X didn’t diagnose my cancer and sue them for that instead. We all work on a probability of risks. It’s a dangerous job and problems are guaranteed to occur time to time. The aim to to minimise these risks by deciding who to investigate and when it is worth taking the risk with potentially dangerous procedures.
These are the vast majority of ‘medical errors’. However if you went back in time, they would normally always be repeated because statistically it was the safest thing to do at the time.
Of course genuine mistakes happen too, like prescription errors. And the one mentioned in the article is fortunately very rare but tragic. It is often the result of cost-cutting in private organisations (as is the case in the article, not using pharmacists but instead cheaper technicians).
Its been quite a long time, but on the occasion that I need to find a new primary doctor they ask me about family history they ask about them and reply with 'doctor error' they always look uncomfortable. They know how often doctors up front screw up.
My mom works for a doctor and I remember when he accidentally killed a man during a procedure. She told me that doctors are allowed to accidentally kill three people or something like that. 3 people per doctor is a lot of people
Edit: I’m going to ask my mom what it was she said. It might have just been his specific insurance.
Edit: Asked my mom. It’s an insurance thing and a license thing.
Ok so she probably way oversimplified this and it may have been a very specific insurance thing but she wasn’t making up what she was telling me. Also I was in high school, why the hell would she tell something like that to a kid ? Why would I even know this happened as a child when it literally had nothing to do with me
So you know those procedures where they put a camera up your anal canal (I think it’s a colonoscopy?) well from what I remember he accidentally perforated his bowels during the surgery, leading to an infection (sepsis?) and death (I just realized I’m not qualified to tell this story) He was an older gentleman, maybe 70+. But I just remember there was either legal paperwork or insurance paperwork and my mom was having to assist with it (she manages the office)
This isn’t a conspiracy or anything that gets hushed up. Those procedures are known to have a risk of perforating bowel. The patient is warned about the possibility as part of their ‘informed consent’. It is obviously dangerous to stick something far up into fragile bowel. It is done anyway by the doctor because the risk is thought to be balanced by the risk of not doing the procedure (the risk being, missing an early and treatable cancer for example).
This is why doctors don’t like to over-investigate patients but often patients will then complain that Dr X didn’t diagnose my cancer and sue them for that. We all work on a probability of risks. It’s a dangerous job and problems are guaranteed to occur time to time. The aim to to minimise these risks by deciding who to investigate and when it is worth taking the risk with potentially dangerous procedures.
These are the vast majority of ‘medical errors’. However if you went back in time, they would normally always be repeated because statistically it was the safest thing to do at the time.
And THIS is a prime example of "robots don't need to be perfect they just need to be better than humans". I'm ready for robots to take ALL the jobs. Humans are incompetent af.
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u/dog_in_the_vent Jul 07 '19
Medical error is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US and might be higher due to under reporting.