As a parent of a hospitalized child or even for your self, ASK ABOUT EVERYTHING! (I know that the all caps seems like yelling, but maybe I am.) Too many drugs have similar names, make sure they are giving you the right thing and verify what ailment/sympton it is to be treating. With children, doses need to be cut back–ask what dosage they are giving your child and what is the adult dosage to make sure it is an appropriately reduced amount. Or even if it is appropriate and recommended for children.

I know Walgreen’s has made several medicinal erros in my family alone. That’s just the pharmacy where all they are doing is drug dispensation. Imagine the nurse who is handling too many patients, for long hours, and can easily be distracted by being pulled in multiple directions.

I understand the obvious benefits of “asking about everything” during a hospital stay, or even at the pharmacy. I am more likely to double-check at the pharmacy, where I can compare the specified medication per the written prescription against the filled prescription. But in a hospital situation, I have found that nurses and doctors typically don’t really like to be second-guessed …or questioned……..and I often perceive a certain level of disapproval, even when I’m on my best behavior, using my most finely-honed negotiating skills, subserviently postured. It’s like sending an undercooked steak back to the chef. Knowing what can happen when food is returned to the kitchen, I think I’d rather eat it as it was first served.

Thankfully our son hasn’t had any hospital stays so far. The only medicine he’s gotten has been antibiotics.

My wife had a bad reaction to medicine a couple of years ago. Her doctor supposedly knew her medical history and what meds she takes. She was prescribed another medication for an issue and after two doses she began experiencing a lot of problems. Basically the new medication counteracted some of her other meds. She was immediately put onto another type of med, to take care of the concern, but she didn’t fully recover from the after-effects of that bungle for a month. She now has to specifically tell doctors that she’s “allergic” to the particular drug.

Personally, I’d gone into a hospital several years back and they were going to put me on a morphine drip afterward. I asked for them to put me on something else or nothing at all, but they went ahead with the drip. I could control it and wasn’t going to use it but was encouraged to use it, to ward off potential pain. I allowed two doses. I wasn’t having a pain issue and didn’t have any pain for the two days I was in the hospital. On the other hand, I immediately experienced feelings of depression (which I knew was drug related) and couldn’t keep anything down, not even a sip of water.

My problems with doctors and hospital nurses hasn’t been so much medicinal issues as much as listening in general. Almost every step of the way from injury to surgery I was treated as if I were lying or ignorant. If I hadn’t insisted on an x-ray at the ER, the resident may have caused me greater harm than I already had. If not for the x-ray she wouldn’t have known about the glass in my leg, much less that it was resting on a vein! She would have just sewn me up. Then there were the two orthapedic surgeons who treated me as if I were shamming my leg injury, that I was faking the degree or rather lack of degree of movement and strength I had in my leg. Then, the idiocy of the doctor in not putting a catheter in me while I’m still out, instead waiting until I’m awake. Urinary catheters are no fun. I’ve had three surgeries. I’ve only had one doctor who had the presence of mind to do it while I was out. After one surgery, the doctor and/or aide had the audacity to give it to me, then remove it and give it to me again, later! I wasn’t going anywhere and I had an epidural!!!

We’re always checking dosing amounts and often call a pharmacist to check for potential issues and concerns.

As logus (#3) points out, it isn’t just the kids you need to worry about. The more I know about the medical field, the more people I see screwed up by the witch doctors, the less I trust any of them. Wrong meds and wrong treatments that not only don’t cure you but leave you worse off than you were before. Botched screening tests–hey, you didn’t have a damned thing wrong with you before they perforated your innards with a colonoscopy. Major ATTITUDE where the doctor is (or thinks he is!) god-almighty and you are too stupid to even begin to understand their GREAT WISDOM. I don’t know if the problem is that the doctors and nurses and pharmacists are overworked. Frankly, at this point I don’t care. I just know that the best way to stay healthy is to stay away from the medical profession!!!!!!

Can you tell that I have some “issues” here…?

Deregulate everything!
Let the republican free-market work it’s magic.

When Clinton was President gas cost less than $2 a gallon and a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs cost $2.89…..Today! Gas will cost you $3.35 a gallon and the milk and eggs will cost over $7…………..

Thanks George!…..Heckuva job!
How’s Paris Hilton enjoyong her tax cuts?

I don’t know that the White House occupant has a big impact on medication mistakes in hospitals, so let’s stay closer to the topic…

As usual, Garrison extrapolates a wet noodle from dry rice.

A hospital, doctors office or pharmacy is going to have procedures to hopefully prevent problems whether there is regulation or not. There have been problems in the medical field for ages, non-dependent on Federal administrations or parties.

I’d love to hear your explaination on how you can correlate rising fuel and staple goods costs to doctor errors?

#2 Ryan on the E,
You are probably right that many of these folks don’t like to be questioned or second guessed. That is a shame. As often as hopsitals and medical professionals are sued, you would think they would be grateful that you were taking some responsibility for your care (or that of your charge). However, some of these folks think we are insulting their intelligence. Can’t they see we just want to improve our medical IQ? I find it hard to swallow that inquiries will be followed by subsequently less care. After all, the person with enough gumption to ask about their care has enough gumption to find out what is the appropriate care.

How many times do we go to the mechanic, are told we need a fix and immediately ask how that will fix the issue and what the fix entails? The mechanic (or service writer as the case may be) usually responds without indignation to such inquiries.
Why should we be more educated on the care of our car than of our selves/children?

The wet noodle is that Bush wants to deregulate the entire healthcare system in the United States…Bush wants healthcare to be a private market without government interference. Bush has already pushed for laws that cap payments for medical lawsuits….

We’ve seen what deregulation has done to our financial markets…….
Let’s apply the same formula to healthcare…….

To answer you question #7….Look at the deregulation of the airline industry (today’s report) and compare it to what has happened over the past seven years…..

Let the market solve our problems..

Doctors are humans and human’s are not perfect.
There will always be a chance that they will make a mistake.

Some people just trust doctors without question and some just assume they will mess up and watch them like a hawk.

I prefer to settle right in the middle. I stay on top of what is happening but at the same time I trust them to do what is right. There has to be an in-between place.

At the same time you have to be truthful with you doctor. Dont lie about if you smoke or drink or what medications you are taking. You would not believe how many pregnant woman lie about these things then sue the doctor when complications arise.

Hey, Garrison, I agree with you. Let the markets decide. Regulation didn’t seem to get us out of the Great Depression sooner, and laissez-faire wasn’t allowed an opportunity to fully implement. We’ve got plenty of regulation now and we’ve still fallen into a “pre”recession and may still drop fully. And no matter how much money and regulations the government has pumped into airline companies, some still fold. Free market. Survival of the fittest.

I’m not fond of the Bear Stearns deals and such. If you’re bad at your business, whether by practice or budget, you fall on your own. I don’t see less regulation. I see more regulation and more interference by the government. If hospitals want to keep our business, they’ll do their best not to tick off their customers, that is, us, the patient. And in that, they can regulate themselves without too much government interference. Yet the liberal model is more government regulation, if not outright control, specifically of the health care industry. If it’s so good, why are French and British citizens having so many complaints and problems with their government run health care systems?

It’s all about balance. Not too much of any one thing. Too much corporate or government control and yes, they can force us to accept and buy/ pay whatever kind of care they provide, whether that be good or bad for us. The majority of our healthcare system is already privately owned and operated. There is already plenty of regulation in place, and probably too much. Heck, the next place I’d love to see deregulated is education. The Federal government has its hands way too much in the educational system.

The issue at hand has nothing to do with government interference and everything to do with bedside manner, along with taking a breath, common sense and listening. Just as suzy commented with the comparision to the auto repair industry. I don’t think government regulation to an nth degree would improve those issues just because the government admistrates. Consider Glenn Beck’s recent ordeal (He’s just an example… there are plenty of other similar stories)… government regulation would not have made his situation any better. Who knows exactly why Glenn was treated with such malaise and error, who knows what was going thru the heads of some of the people who dealt with him, but having recently gone thru an emergency room issue with my family, the empathy level was somewhat similar, and they didn’t know us from Adam.

Too many health care professionals are forgetting or not learning empathy and an open mind… and no amount of socialistic regulation can affect that.

“If hospitals want to keep our business, they’ll do their best not to tick off their customers, that is, us, the patient.”

Huh… it’s not like we as patients prefer to be there in the first place.

But you’ve got a point. I had a doctor and an underling who were so snotty and condescending during a routine visit, I’ll never be back to that place.

Most places, however, the hospital staff does put forward a lot of empathy. And it goes both ways too; which is a helpful reminder when you’re the one getting stuck with needles.

I think you should ask about everything that you put in your body. I guess the real question is would your understand enough of what they said to make a decision. They think they are doing the correct thing or they wouldn’t be doing it. What if your understanding caused you to not allow something that turned out to be critical to you or your child. It’s a shame but sometimes decisions have to be made in a split second while in the hospital and a second opinion may take a while to get. Like it or not, we have to put our health and sometimes life in someone’s hands and hope for the best.

By the way. Walgreens could make a rubber ball ratttle. I have caught them in many mistakes.

It is tramatic enough for parents when our children are required to have surgery.. To place the responsibily of their care including med’s in our hands is allowing the hospitals and staff to get lazier and even more negiligent. Then they have the audacity to cry that they are short staffed and overworked and underpayed! Welcome to America.
I don’t go to the dentist and expect that he is going to hand me the drill to fill my own tooth. I shouldn’t have to be the one playing nurse or doctor either. That is their job and if they suck at it then they shouldn’t be there in the first place. I never would of considered that the medical professionals were not on their game when my kids had their procedures done.
Years later, now that they are adults, I cringe at how trusting I was. It is a sad fact that we now have to question every part of every procedure done to us and our children. Some might say that that is just good common sense to me it is a testament of what we have allowed our medical professionals to become.

Ryan, yeah, I get you on the both ways thing. I’ve not always been the easiest patient. But then, being cooped up in a hospital for two months kinda gets on your nerves. At 21 years old, I thought I knew a lot. With a collapsed lung eventually needing open chest surgery, I often tested the nurses, but on the whole I was a fairly compliant patient.

I’d take a shower with all sorts of stuff dangling from me and they’d bang on the bathroom door asking what I was doing! I’d get sarcastic to them yelling about me getting bandages wet, to which I’d reply they needed to be/ or would be replaced anyway. There were a number of pills I was given daily, many of which I’d spit out later. A couple of days after the big surgery all of my equipment was on one side of the bed. After being bedridden for three days, I was ready to get up. I probably wasn’t a door past my room when an RN’s hand was on my shoulder asking me what I was doing. I was walking slower than a near invalid at a nursing home. I had to have doctor’s orders to get up and walk around. I felt good getting up and about, and either later that day or the next I was allowed to walk. On the flip side I had a number of needles and such in both arms and eventually one arm swelled up because it’d been in too long. I called for a nurse who wouldn’t remove it until given the okay by a doctor!!! My friggen arm looked like I had elephantitis! This was the same place that gave me two catheters within a matter of hours because they were waiting for me to pee… who’d just had open chest surgery, an epidural and pretty much bed-ridden for a couple of weeks, certainly for 12 hours following the surgery. Needless to say I was not impressed with that hospital on the whole. I did notice however better treatment in the children’s ward where I was initially placed as compared to the regular ward after my final surgery.

I won’t regale any with my step-father’s experiences with the VA, a la government run healthcare.

And Gina, think of the potential if they’re completely administrated by the government! A government job is almost as solid as a union job. You get one, you’re good to go… like a bad teacher or professor with tenure!

But we need more government control, because that’ll fix everything! Yeah, right.

I dunno about kids and hospitals, but EVERYONE should be careful of taking muscle relaxers (which lurk about in your system) on a daily basis and drinking alcohol.

Garrison it’s not the Republicans or the president that’s to fault for all the world’s woes.It’s truly the democrats,can’t you see that?This article is about doctors.I sure hope you never need one because if you do their the only humans who can help you plain and simple!!

#15 Gina,
No one is arguing that you should be playing doctor or nurse. However, I would question why anyone would take a passive approach to their or their children’s healthcare. Especially in this age where the insurance companies are anxious to discharge patients, the more you know about the treatment the better you can take care of yourself or your children once out of the hospital.
The fact is people make mistakes on the job. Doctors and nurses are not an exception, it is just that there mistakes sometimes have larger consequences than the kid at McDonald’s who gives back the wrong change or puts pickles on your McChicken.

Robsmyth — are you talking about Soma–I’ve heard terrible things about this muscle relaxant.

Ryan–you are correct in that nurses and drs. do tend to make you feel awkward when questioning what they are doing to you and what medicines they have prescribed. That should not be the case, but unfortunately it is the truth.

Logus–you are so right—they want to place a catheter when you are awake or before they administer pain meds.–never while you’re asleep or when you’re pain is being managed by meds.

As of 4:33 pm on 4/7/08, your article reads, “medicine mix-ups harm about one out of every 15 hospitalized children..” This is blatant misinformation being spewed all over the newspapers.

The paper from Pediatrics says nothing of the sort. The paper from Pediatrics says that in the survey, 7.3 percent of children (approximately 1 in 15) experienced an adverse drug reaction.

An adverse drug reaction does not in any way imply a “medical misstep” or a “medical error.” An adverse drug reaction is just that: an unpredicable and idiosycratic reaction to a drug that is neither predictable nor necessarily unexpected.

For example, if a kid with no known drug allergies is placed on an antibiotic and has a first allergic reaction to the drug, this is not a “medication error.” Nor is it a “medical misstep.” This is an adverse drug reaction that is an accepted possible outcome of being placed on the antibiotic. In some circumstances, even when a child has a known drug allergy, a physician may knowingly prescribe a similar drug to the child is allergic to knowing that the child has an increased risk of of having an allergic reaction. Most often, this is not an “error.” It is a judgment based on the appropriateness of the drug for the circumstance, weighing the benefits against the risk.

The original study showed adverse drug events of 11.1 per 100 patients, of which 22% were preventable. 0.111 x .22 = 2.4 %.

So even if you assume all preventable adverse drug reactions were “medical errors” or “medical missteps”, the rate would be less than 2.4%. Note, some patients had more than 1 adverse drug event, which is why the overall rate of adverse drug events was 11.1 % whereas the percent of patients affected was 7.3 % or 1 in 15. Likely some of the kids more than 1 preventable adverse drug event though the paper didn’t specify, which means that the number is actually somewhat lower then 2.4 %.

At any rate, the 1 in 15 from the paper refers to the proportion of kids experiencing adverse drug events, not the proportion experiencing “medication errors.” Assuming all preventable adverse events were errors, the rate was less than 2.4 % or less than 1 in 40 patients, not 1 in 15 as the major journal outlets have been saying.

Get your facts straight before you publish something, journalists.

You could have gotten yourself a copy of the paper for free off of the Pediatrics website if you had any interest in being thorough before publishing this dreck.

Now, do the honest thing. Instead of just changing the headline of your little article, actually publish an errata explaining to everyone what numbskulls you are.

Non-scientists shouldn’t write about science, period. If you can’t make sense out of what an original peer-reviewed article is saying yourself (much less critically evaluate it) you have no business writing or transmitting about science or medicine in the first place.

#20
Have you ever had a child go into surgery? You are barely able to remember to breathe . It is so easy to say coulda shoulda but the reality is that fear renders you a little dumber than you would normally be. I expect that the professionals are going to handle the things I can’t while I am pacing and praying. It isn’t about being passive, it is about knowing you have limitations and that you have to trust that your Dr.’s and nurses are going to do the right thing.

First, I don’t hang out at hospitals, that is where all the diseases are. That’s common sense. While my immune system is running full blast and I never catch anything from anybody, I don’t Dare my luck to change.

Of course the medical profession makes mistakes, often fatal ones. So do other professions.. I don’t ride 4 wheelers, jump out of airplanes, use electric cords outside wile it is raining, don’t fight alligators and don’t visit hospitals, . I do not put myself in danger of an injury, and don’t need the medical profession to treat me…and possibly make a mistake.

Eeble Oooble, re your posts #23, and #24, What “bloody idiot” would believe a paper written by
a Pediatrics. Are they infallible? No, and any paper written by them would be self serving. Do you believe all the advertisement for pharmaceutical drugs? They are developed by “scientists” and, and according to you can be believed.

Your assertion that A non scientist should not write about science is absolutely preposterous.

Want some examples?

colonoscopy picture…

For flexible borescopes, articulation mechanism components, range of articulation, field of view and angles of view of the objective…

My Son Is Allergic To Many Things…

Interesting - because that is the same thing I found out last Thursday….

Yes john, I want some examples.

> Do you believe all the advertisement for pharmaceutical drugs? They are
> developed by “scientists” and, and according to you can be believed.

No, I don’t believe advertisements. They are not written by scientists, they are written by people who specialize in marketing, another brand of liberal arts educated buffoon with bigger mouths than brains.

Probably, if this country weren’t full of so many liberal arts inclined idiots, marketing towards people’s stupidity wouldn’t be such a successful and widespread practice.

> Eeble Oooble, re your posts #23, and #24, What “bloody idiot” would believe a
> paper written by a Pediatrics.

The author of the News article about which we are all commenting.

you know, the article in the journal named Pediatrics, which is alleged to state that “medicine mix-ups harm about one out of every 15 hospitalized children” when in fact the article says nothing of the sort. If you don’t believe me, here it is:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/121/4/e927

> What “bloody idiot” would believe a paper written by a Pediatrics.

I wouldn’t necessarily. Why would you believe a bunch of liberal arts educate journalists yokels who can’t even correctly quote or interpret the paper on which they are alleged to be reporting?

> Are they infallible? No, and any paper written by them would be self serving.

Of course the paper in Pediatrics is self serving. Many of the authors are M.P.H.’s (”Masters in Public Health). For those of you who do not true, while it may generally be true that “those who cannot do, teach.” In medicine, those physicians who cannot do get an M.P.H. For those of you who do not know, the pinnacle of achievement of an M.P.H. is to get their studies quoted in asinine newspaper articles related to over-inflated and asinine claims. It how those guys get tenure.