Entries for April 2007

If the garage that does routine repairs on your car doesn't work on transmissions very often, you'd think twice about going there for a new transmission. How about a hospital that calls itself a transplant center–would you want a new heart or liver or kidney installed in your body at a place that's done the job a handful of times in the past year or two?

Would you spend $25 for a little aluminum cylinder that could save your life?

About 7,000 people a year die in hospitals because of medication errors, and the march toward one of these unnecessary tragedies usually begins with a communication gap. When patients are admitted, hospitals frequently have a terrible time finding out the drugs they were taking, because no matter how often we've been told that everybody should carry a list of their medications and dosages, most of us don't. So nurses have to spend hours on the phone with family members, coaxing them to check the medicine cabinet, or call a patient's pharmacy for help. Otherwise the patient might not receive a vital drug, or a deadly drug interaction might occur.

If the quality and safety of your medical care fell short in some way, would you have any idea? Do you know where and when you should be on guard, what hospitals and clinics are doing to treat and protect patients better, and what steps do and don't work? All of that and more will be within the scope of this blog.