03-14-2008, 05:18 AM | #21 |
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
Mike and ER represent the spectrum in med mal.
The Medical Establishment takes the line that med mal almost never happens and that sufficient safeguards are in place to avoid all but the rarest of mistakes. I would agree that if all physicians followed their training all of the time, very few mistakes would result in med mal harming a patient. OTOH, with workloads and income expectations, mistakes occur in larger percentages than the medical establishment is wont to admit, yet not in the proportions the plaintiff's bar would have you believe. ER arguing that nurses will alway catch the obvious mistakes is simply not true. With rushes, foreign nurses and the sometimes subservient attitude of nurses you can find nurses who won't question a doctor's orders. But plenty will question them and many mistakes are caught. Mike is correct that hospitals especially and many physicians work immediately to cover up mistakes once something awful has happened. There are sincere, conscientious physicians who will self-examine upon a bad result, but the consequences of being too forthright are severe and militate against total honesty even with peer review protections in place. It is a complex problem, but not aspect of the health care establishment encompasses enough of the issues for a universal review to be possible. In short, no matter who performs the study, it's likely to be slanted one way or another.
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
03-14-2008, 03:23 PM | #22 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: North Central God's Country
Posts: 1,534
|
0.03% of the population seems like an acceptable loss rate to me.
__________________
I see a hobo. And when I see the hobo, I think to myself, "This man is poor. His monetary value is low, and my monetary value is high, and it's a shame that he is himself. What can I do?" |
03-14-2008, 03:24 PM | #23 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 8,596
|
The more interesting stat is, what percentage of people who receive hospital medical treatment is it? I'm guessing much higher (possibly too high to be believable).
__________________
"Have we been commanded not to call a prophet an insular racist? Link?" "And yes, [2010] is a very good year to be a Democrat. Perhaps the best year in decades ..." - Cali Coug "Oh dear, granny, what a long tail our puss has got." - Brigham Young |
03-14-2008, 03:29 PM | #24 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: North Central God's Country
Posts: 1,534
|
Yeah, I couldn't find that stat so I settled for a simple, dumb pseudo-lawyer statistic.
__________________
I see a hobo. And when I see the hobo, I think to myself, "This man is poor. His monetary value is low, and my monetary value is high, and it's a shame that he is himself. What can I do?" |
03-14-2008, 03:34 PM | #25 |
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
It's certainly less than lost through raping and pillaging the land.
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
03-14-2008, 04:03 PM | #26 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: North Central God's Country
Posts: 1,534
|
Quote:
P.S. I never pegged you for a long-haired patchouli stink hippie. Just goes to show I guess.
__________________
I see a hobo. And when I see the hobo, I think to myself, "This man is poor. His monetary value is low, and my monetary value is high, and it's a shame that he is himself. What can I do?" |
|
03-15-2008, 05:34 AM | #27 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,589
|
Quote:
But thanks for the comment. Are you a member of JCAHO? |
|
03-15-2008, 05:38 AM | #28 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,589
|
Quote:
I also never claimed that nurses catch all mistakes. They most certainly don't. But the morphine/magnesium example is a total farce and is most certainly made up. Also illustrates how inept JCAHO is by their continual citing of it as justification to their silly requests. I also have to object to your characterizing hospitals and doctors' efforts to cover up their mistakes. There is a major push that has occurred recently towards acknowledging and apologizing to patients when errors are made. Studies have shown that legal costs go down when you follow this method; more and more hospitals have found it beneficial to do this. Malpractice reform efforts are also underway to protect hospitals and doctors from "admissions of guilt" during an effort at acknowledgement of an error--this should further improve the situation. I'm all for improved systems in medicine to reduce error. It's worked in anesthesiology. The problem is that those who are in charge of the process have no clinical experience and institute requirements with serious costs and no proven benefit. Last edited by ERCougar; 03-15-2008 at 05:46 AM. |
|
03-15-2008, 05:40 AM | #29 |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,365
|
ER docs are known as the biggest assholes in medicine.
This has nothing to do with this thread, but I thought I would mention it. |
03-15-2008, 05:51 AM | #30 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,589
|
I still can't figure out if you're a doctor. To make that statement makes me think absolutely not. ER doc's bigger assholes than surgeons? Are you kidding me? I know there are exceptions and you can call me an asshole (indirectly) if you want, but let's take a poll of doctors and nurses and see what they think.
|
Bookmarks |
|
|