Johns Hopkins hospital did a study and concluded that a quarter of a million US citizens die from medical error. If this seemshigh, then realize that there are others who thik the number sould be in the 400,000s. The PSNet Collection which comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community, disagrees. They think that the number should be between 44,000 and 98,000.
Why such a difference of figures? It is not that there are not many medical errors made, it is just that many time in the search to treat unknow diseases or illnesses as they come through the door, a wrong treatment may have been started. Sometimes these people die, but they would have died anyway regardless of whether they received a poor treatment.
The wrong treatment is not the only problem. An adverse drug event (ADE) is when someone is harmed by a medicine. Even over the counter medicines will have cautions. I personally remember when I had some indigestion that just kept hanging on. I don’t remember the anti-acid I took, but I had some side effect. When I looked at the package, sure enough, that effect was listed. I started drinking milk with my meals and after a few days, the problem corrected itself.
Every time I see a medical ad on TV, it amazes me of the side effects. Sometimes the effects may include heart attacks or even death. Doctors will prescribe a medicine and give you a sheet or two or three… listing how it should be taken and possible side effects. The pharmacists may do the same thing. The CDC says “Older adults are nearly seven times more likely than younger persons to be hospitalized after an emergency visit, but most of these hospitalizations are due to just a few drugs that should be monitored carefully to prevent problems.”
Why is it that as we get older and can have trouble reading small print, the print gets smaller. Even though my vision is corrected, I still can’t read the instruction on many food items. At my age, it is even more important.
For more healthy hints, “How the Food Industry is Killing Us” available almost everywhere including libraries, just ask. We are posting the book on Daily Kos as a serial between our other articles on our column You are What You Eat, Drink, Breathe…