Which is the left side of your car... driver's side or passenger? I have a hard time if somebody is behind me giving directions while I'm looking in the mirror... I have to make my finger point in the same direction as his.
The first time I clicked on the link it wouldn't let me in without registering. I closed it and the second time was able to read the article.
That surgeon messed up, no two ways about it. I thought that somebody marked where the incision was going to be.
Surgical error prevention is why it is now the standard of care in the US to indelibly mark the surgical area prior to surgery, preferably with the patient awake and confirming it.
The UK is catching up on that one, as the article highlights.
Medical errors are thought to account for at least 98,000 deaths per year in the US, potentially three times that. Read "
To Err Is Human", if you are interested. US medical practice has gotten safer in some areas in the twenty five or so years since it was originally published in my opinion, but as medicine also has gotten more complicated, less safe in others. There are some ares like sepsis where the death rate is astoundingly high because of entrenched poor procedures. Ditto central lines. There are other areas where the procedure for the standard of care is so complex that it is often not followed correctly. I think that the problem is that medicine is complex, medical professionals are overworked, and burdened with non-medical tasks, and it doesn't help that unlike say,
pilots, and truck drivers, doctors don't have to fully recertify themselves every few years.
An Overview of To Err is Human: Re-emphasizing the Message of Patient Safety - Patient Safety and Quality - NCBI Bookshelf
I think that it is about time that we recognize that doctors and nurses are human, and we put in place better organizations and processes to help them not make errors.
Know what they call the person who graduates last in the class in medical school?
Yup, Doctor.
Ok, rant over.
All the best,
Peter
www.bbc.com
