Illness requiring hospitalization is never something we plan and certainly not a welcomed visitor, especially when it leaves you vulnerable and weak. But did you know that hundreds of thousands die in hospitals every year due to mistakes?
In a frightening news article on
Forbes.com, the seven deadly hospital "sins" are uncovered. Its whats killing between
40,000 - 100,000 vulnerable patients every year.
In the article, some major mistakes were described as botched surgeries including Dana Carvey's surgeon who operated on the
WRONG ARTERY during a heart bypass.
In one widely reported case, comedian Dana Carvey was the victim of a botched heart bypass operation; his doctor operated on the wrong artery. (The problem was fixed in a second procedure.)
And another patient who was an accident victim and had suffered head trauma however, she was a victim of a hospital accident as well:
The wife of a patient whose brain was damaged in a car accident wrote in the journal Health Affairs about how a misplaced catheter and a blood clot led to the amputation of her husband's hand
So what are the
seven deadly hospital sins?
1. Surgery mix-ups such as leaving tools inside the patient and amputating the wrong limb
2. Infected incisions - prone to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria
3. Excessive bleeding
4. Patients getting sicker while in the hospital which can lead to complications
5. Infected ventilators - those on ventilators are already very sick and unclean ventilators are killers
6. Infected catheter - germs get into central lines and cause sepsis and bloodstream infection
7. Wrong medications - one in five hospital patients may get wrong drugs according to Auburn University study
Being ever vigilant by hand washing, treating patients with antibiotics prior to surgery, controlling hospital patient traffic including not shuffling them around, cleaning equipment and simply paying attention are just a few ways that hospital staff can counter these preventable hospital risks.
As reported in the article, hospitals like Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio have take "hyper-vigilant" steps to keep patients safe in areas like equipment cleaning. Their change in plan resulted in "a 90% reduction in ventilator pneumonia."
Patient overcrowding not only brings in more problems as far as disease and bacteria but when there are too many patients and not enough care-givers, this opens up the door for major mistakes as physicians, surgeons, nurses and other medical staff are rushed from room to room to attend to the high volume. An example is found in how surgeons cause overcrowding in operating rooms as explained to Forbes by Eugene Litvak, the Boston University operations management expert:
Urgent cases, like broken limbs, come in a steady stream. It's actually operations scheduled months ahead of time that cause overcrowding. It is easier for practically every hospital to predict when somebody will break their leg than when someone will schedule surgery," Litvak lamented to Forbes in April. "God doesn't make people sicker on Tuesday than Wednesday. We do."
So next time you plan on falling ill, make sure you do a thorough "scrub in" of all area hospitals with respect to the seven killers. However, if you are like most Americans who end up in hospital, you probably don't have a lot of time to plan ahead so ensuring your loved ones are advocates and know those seven risks may potentially save yours or a loved ones life.
