Here is a research paper I wrote in undergraduate English composition class. I really want to make a difference as a physician and as an activist. I hope you will find this paper illuminating and that it will empower you to make changes just like I am trying to do.
Please vote for my Netroots Nation scholarship before or after reading.
This year is my best chance to go before I start medical school. Spread the word to others to vote for me. It just takes 30 seconds. Thank you.
http://nn13.democracyforamerica.com/...
U.S medicine has advanced significantly over time. We are worlds away from the risky “bleeding” treatments to remove “bad blood”. However today, there are huge problems with U.S medicine. Medical errors, poor hospital care, and a shortage of doctors are putting the U.S medical system in critical condition.
Medical errors are the fifth largest cause of death in the U.S. According to Catherine Morgan at Blogher.com blog, up to 100,000 people die a year due to medical errors (Blogher). That is more than annual car accidents, AIDs, or breast cancer deaths (each individually). Imagine a NFL football stadium that can fit up to 100,000 people. It is possible that some of these people could have found a cure to cancer or AIDs. Specifically, prescription medication errors constitute the most common medical errors (41%), as claimed by medicinenet.com(medicine net). Furthermore, a study of medication errors by Richards & Richards medical malpractice firm states that nearly half of prescription medication errors are due to poor communication, e.g the doctor wrote down the wrong prescription or dosage (Richards and Richards). Can you imagine how preventable these errors are? Fewer errors would mean lower taxes as well because court cases are generally funded by tax money. As stated by an article at Injuryblog network, more than $3.5 billion a year is spent due to medical errors (Injuryblog).
An article on newsvine.com states that 1,500 drugs have very similar names that are easily confused. Mixing up drug names is the root cause of 325,000 people being assigned a wrong prescription. Linda Sanders’ mother committed suicide because of a drug accidentally given to her. She was supposed to have the drug Lyrica, which acts as a painkiller. Instead, the pharmacist gave the drug Lamictal, which is an anti-epilepsy drug. The dose the pharmacist gave was also too high. Lamictal’s main side effect is the desire to commit suicide. Linda Sanders was devastated, and is now considering suing the pharmacy that gave her mother the wrong drug. Furthermore, there have been several cases of Zyrtec, an anti- allergy medication, being mixed up with the anti-psychotic drug Zypyrexia (newsvine).
Importantly, humans alone do not account for preventable medical errors. There has to be conditions that lead to humans making those errors. Therefore, poor hospital care and management is another major problem of U.S medicine. Medical errors largely arise from poor hospital conditions. Dr. Ed Zimney from EverydayHealth blog states that, “Veteran Hospitals are underfunded and thus tend to deliver poor quality of care.” He chastised the Bush administration for failing to steps to ensure that veterans receive the proper health care they need. For example, one tragic story involved the case of a man having his wrong testicle removed. He ultimately had to have both testicles removed. The errors could have been easily prevented. The family sued for $200,000 in damages. Taxpayers bear a significant burden on cases of poor hospital veteran care (Everydayhealth). The taxpayers could have paid that money towards prevention of medical errors and improving the veterans’ healthcare system. Hospitals need money to pay for sophisticated equipment, tools, and training. With money scarce, military surgeons will not receive the proper training.
Even in non-veterans’ hospitals, there are several cases of poor hospital care that have claimed lives of innocent people. One tragic example of this is stated in an article of the Wall Street Journal. Nurse Julie Thao of Madison, Wisconsin in 2006 injected an epidural painkiller into the bloodstream of a pregnant teenager instead of penicillin into the spine. The two bags for each medication were clearly labeled. The baby ultimately was delivered successfully but the teenager died. It became national news. Ultimately, Nurse Thao was fired from her job and arrested for criminal negligence. The hospital had chronic problems of staff not following protocol because they were not trained properly. There was a barcoding system that would match correct medications to the correct patients. However, there were glitches, and staff would bypass the system. They could have been trained on how to deal with the glitches. The medication system was overall reliable (Wall Street Journal). Regardless, this is a classic example of a medication error that is very preventable. The hospital paid $1.9 million to settle the malpractice suit (Wall Street Journal).
Additionally, a story on “Safe Patients Project” blog claims that a 13-month old girl was admitted to a hospital because of a failing shunt in her brain. The staff was refusing to put her in the operating room because it was “busy” and it was late at night. The baby had very limited time to live. The staff put the baby with her mother in a basic hospital bedroom, not even in an intensive care unit where the baby could have been monitored. Even the resident neurosurgeon (a neurosurgeon in training) did not consider doing pre-surgery checkups on the baby, who was showing obvious signs of fatal intracranial pressure, a deadly head condition. Failing to check up on a baby is beyond atrocious. While the baby was gradually dying, unbeknownst to the hospital staff, the resident neurosurgeon was trying to page the on-call neurosurgeon, who was supposed to do the main surgery. Unfortunately, the on-call surgeon had his pager on vibrate and was asleep. Lots of time was wasted as the resident neurosurgeon failed to get ahold of the attending one. After losing hope, the resident neurosurgeon was asked to take charge even though he had a limited medical license that had expired. Furthermore, the resident neurosurgeon ordered blood tests, which showed critical carbon dioxide levels, abnormal potassium levels, and abnormal sodium levels. He totally ignored the tests even though he asked for them. After six hours of hospital time, the baby died. The mother was beyond devastated, but is now advocating for patients’ rights (Safe Patients). This tragic story is one of thousands due to the high rate of annual medical error deaths.
The third major problem of the U.S system of medicine is a shortage of doctors in the near future. According to an article from USAtoday.com, there will be a doctor shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 physicians in 2020 if drastic measures are not taken to produce more doctors. For years, the American Medical Association has advocated for having a cap on the number of physicians practicing per year. The association said that there will be a surplus of doctors as recently as the 1990s. However, that has not happened. The Baby Boomer Generation is one of the largest generations in America. There will be a huge number of retirees needing care because of the looming baby boomer retirements. Especially significant is that there are a huge number of baby boomer doctors who will be retiring in the near future per year. These doctor retirements will outnumber the 25,000 new doctors hired per year. Further compounding the problem is the increasing shortage of specialty care. Doctors tend to locate wherever they want. This results in shortages in certain places such as rural areas, where people there are particularly deprived of certain health care (USAtoday). As a consequence of having fewer doctors per people, some doctors have to do the additional workload of two other doctors who should be filling the voids. This greatly burdens the doctor with additional stress on top of the already demanding profession he or she has. Those doctors doing extra workload work more hours too.
Whenever there are problems, solutions need to be accompanied for them. Craig Svensson of Purdue University says that one main way to reduce medical errors, particularly prescription medication errors, is to have standardized electronic systems, which can match medications to the appropriate patients. Fewer than 20% of physicians use “e-prescribing”. In addition, utilizing more teamwork to treat a patient will provide more safeguards. For example, having a pharmacy on a medical round in a hospital reduced medication errors by 66%, according to a study in 1999. Lastly, standardizing how drugs are sorted can help reduce confusion within hospital staff. Volume, mass, and weight can be easily mixed up (Craig Svensson).
President Obama signed the Omnibus 2010 spending bill, according to a wordpress diary, which included funding for electronic record for military service members. Health claims will be processed more rapidly so that care will delivered sooner rather than later. Furthermore, a lot of unnecessary copayments for chronically disabled military veterans will be eliminated (wordpressdiaries). Essentially, investing in hospital systems to improve quality of care is what is needed for poor hospital care problem.
In order to overcome the shortage of doctors looming, investments in building new medical schools are cited as key. More medical schools would mean more resources that are available to train more people. Furthermore, some medical experts endorse stricter policy rules regarding where doctors can work. This would move doctors to more rural areas where doctor shortages are rapidly becoming abundant. Another solution proposed is to invest in more stipends for students that would encourage them to practice medicine. Medical debt is a concern among people who want to go medical school, but dread about expenses.
Society will be a much better place if preventable medical errors did not occur. It will also have fewer lives and hearts shattered, particularly infants. These tragic stories should be wake-up calls to the fact that we have a medical error epidemic in this country. There is hope though. We can work hard to raise awareness of preventable errors, and people will have the opportunity to take things into their own hands when it comes to prevention.
Works Cited
Aleccia, Jonel. "Newsvine - Look-alike, Sound-alike Drugs Trigger Dangers." Newsvine - Get Smarter Here. Newsvine, Inc, 28 May 2010. Web. 15 May 2011. .
Cauchon, Dennis. "USATODAY.com - Medical Miscalculation Creates Doctor Shortage." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. USA TODAY, 02 Mar. 2005. Web. 15 May 2011. .
Landro, Laura. "New Focus on Averting Errors: Hospital Culture - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. Dow Jones and Company, INC, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 May 2011. .
Morgan, Catherine. "Did You Know That Preventable Medical Mistakes Are One of the Leading Causes of Death in the United States?" Blogher.com. Blogher, 5 May 2007. Web. 2 May 2011.
"Nearly Half of Medication Errors Caused by Poor Communication | Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog." Pittsburgh Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog | Pennsylvania Brain Injury Lawyer | Allegheny County Cerebral Palsy Law Firm. Richards and Richards, LLP, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 May 2011. .
"President Obama Signs the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act | 44-D." 44-D | Free Speech… No Charge. 5 May 2010. Web. 15 May 2011. .
"Stories about Medical Errors." Safepatientproject.org. Consumers Union. Web. 4 May 2011.
Stoppler, Melissa. "The Most Common Medication Errors by MedicineNet.com."
Medicinenet.com. Medicinenet, Inc. Web. 16 May 2011.
.
Svensson, Craig. "Simple Solutions Can Reduce Medication Errors, Expert Says." Purdue University. 14 July 2008. Web. 15 May 2011. .
"VP-Medical News » Blog Archive » First Do No Harm." Life Care Planning, Legal Nurse Consulting, Injury and Disability Medical Cost Management - VP-Medical.com. 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 May 2011. .
Zimney, Ed. "Va Hospital Problems. Are Veterans Receiving the Care They Need? - Health and Medical News You Can Use." Health Information, Resources, Tools & News Online - EverydayHealth.com. Everyday Health, Inc, 10 Apr. 2007. Web. 15 May 2011. .