You May Not Be As Safe As You Think If You Go To A Hospital During The Holiday Season
Many of you, including myself, have had the occasion to visit the hospital during the holiday season. What you normally observe is that many doctors and staff are on vacation and temporaries are brought in who may or may not be familiar with the normal routine of the hospital. Martine Ehrenclou M.A. has written a book entitled Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved Ones Out Of the Hospital Alive that I highly recommend. This very worthwhile book highlights issues that the Philadelphia medical malpractice law firm of Reiff and Bily have known, researched, and litigated for all too long a time.
When your loved one is in the hospital, your natural instinct may be to surrender control to the hospital staff or doctors because you believe that they know what they are doing. For the most part they do; however, we must recognize that no matter how skilled and committed these individuals are to your or your loved one’s case, they are overloaded and sometimes short staffed as is the situation over the holiday period.
According to the 5th Annual HealthGrades Patient Safety and American Hospital study of 2008 nearly a quarter of a million deaths in hospital’s nationwide were found to be preventable. Martine Ehrenclou’s book is available from Lemon Grove Press, a publisher that can be reached at 310-458-6047. Ms. Ehrenclou suggests five steps to increase your chances of surviving a hospital stay between December 24th and January 5th:
1. Ask a loved one to act as your eyes and ears during your hospital stay. There must always be someone, a family member or friend to act as a sentinel or watchdog to oversee your hospital care, medical care and to prevent medical error. You as the hospitalized patient cannot do this for yourself as you are recuperating. Ask your loved one to get a notebook and write down your hospital room, your physicians including your primary one and nurses names as well as contact information, your diagnosis, treatment plan and medications.
2. To prevent medication mistakes, ask your loved ones to write down your medications and dosages and list what the medications look like, the shape of the pills, names on the bottles or IV bags. Because labels and bottles can look and sound alike, ask your loved one to make sure that they recognize the medication when it is administered. If they don’t, they must ask questions. Allergies to any medication MUST be in your chart. Your loved one must repeat this information to your primary nurse.
3. To prevent surgery on the wrong part of your body, your loved one must accompany you to the operating room and request to see the surgeon. They must ask this doctor to mark on your body the correct site to be operated on and what surgery is to be performed. If the surgeon is not available, your loved one must ask to see the anesthesiologist and other staff involved in your care. Personally, I recommend meeting with the surgeon myself prior to the surgery and having a clear understanding of what the procedure will entail and the surgical site. Believe it or not, we have handled cases where the original surgeon retained never even made it to the surgery and malpractice occurred by a doctor that the patient never met or knew was operating on them.
4. To prevent the speed of hospital acquired infectious diseases, the most virulent of which are MRSA and pneumonia, your loved one should ask everyone, including physicians and nurses, to wash their hands and put disposable gloves on before touching you. Antibacterial gel should be placed next to your bed and everyone should be asked to use it.
5. To prevent patient name mistakes, with each hospital staff member who comes to pick you up for a procedure or who is to administer treatment, ask your loved one to match your name with the correct procedure. They must repeat this checklist with each hospital staff person.
We highly recommend the reading of Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved One Out Alive.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice and would like a free consultation to discuss the merits of your case, please call one of our experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.
