In light of the recent lawsuit by Dennis Quaid, how safe do you feel in a hospital from harmful medication errors?

Recently, the twin kids of actor Denis Quaid were accidentally given 1000X overdoses of the blood thinner heparin. Although I am well-versed in the patient safety literature of how often such events actually occur, I was curious about the public's perception. How do you feel with regard to your chance of experiencing a harmful medication error at a hospital?

By harmful, I mean one that increases your hospital stay (or worse! ). What are your expectations of your inpatient healthcare providers?

If you are on higher-risk medications (i.e. Those that always require more active management), do you accept that you are possibly at greater risk for an event that harms your health? Or should this not matter?

Do you feel safe? Asked by corgistador 48 months ago Similar questions: light recent lawsuit Dennis Quaid safe feel hospital harmful medication errors Health > Medicine.

Similar questions: light recent lawsuit Dennis Quaid safe feel hospital harmful medication errors.

There is a serious change in hospital staffing My concern would be related to hospital staffing. I don't think most people realize the registered nurse to patient ratio can be 1/20. The nurse who is answering your calls, monitering your vitals and distributing your meds is an LVN with 18-24 months of training.

This is strictly a cost based decision by the for profit hospital industry. The idea is that these functions are just a matter of recording information not requiring specific skills. So essentially what you are getting is a medical clerk.

I have had significant hospital experience in the past few years and I generally feel safe because I am an active patient. In my hospital the medicine is prepared in the pharmacy and sent up to the ward. They are checked on the floor and when they are brought to the patient they are checked against the identity band and the nurse gives the name, dosage and purpose of the medication and asks the patient to verify.

I always learn what I am taking. Of course for a child or unconscios patient, you don't have that final verification. We have had a couple of nurses' strikes in this area.

The sticking point is always staffing. The nurses are all about hiring more RN's for patient safety. They work 10 hour days and usually have only 1 RN on a shift meaning there is no coverage for mandated breaks or in case there are two crisis at the same time.

The hospitals' publihed viewpoint is that the nurses just want more members for their union. HA! Galileogirl's Recommendations Health Policy: Crisis and Reform in the U.S. Health Care Delivery System Amazon List Price: $63.95 Used from: $41.00 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) Elephants in the Exam Room: The Seven Things you Need to Know About Today's Health Care ''Crisis'' Amazon List Price: $15.95 Used from: $39.36 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) .

I heard someone say "you don't want to be in a hospital, people die there" The Institute of Medicine issued a report on medical mistakes "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System" in 1999. "At least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented, according to estimates from two major studies. Even using the lower estimate, preventable medical errors in hospitals exceed attributable deaths to such feared threats as motor-vehicle wrecks, breast cancer, and AIDS.

One of the report’s main conclusions is that the majority of medical errors do not result from individual recklessness or the actions of a particular group--this is not a “bad apple” problem. More commonly, errors are caused by faulty systems, processes, and conditions that lead people to make mistakes or fail to prevent them. For example, stocking patient-care units in hospitals with certain full-strength drugs, even though they are toxic unless diluted, has resulted in deadly mistakes."

My understanding is this is what happened in the Dennis Quaid case, even though the danger of confusion with heparin was already well known. A computer/bar code system used by veterans hospitals would go a long way in solving the problem. In my own experience I have seen errors made in hospitals by busy staff.(thankfully minor) So I think being an informed patient or family member is part of my responsibility.

I have an expectation that people are competent at their job, don’t take shortcuts, and aren’t afraid to admit mistakes or correct others. Systems should be in place to measure quality of care, including patient feedback. Sources: iom.edu/CMS/8089/5575.aspx supergrover's Recommendations To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System Amazon List Price: $34.95 Used from: $30.20 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 2 reviews) Preventing Medication Errors: Quality Chasm Series (Quality Chasm) Amazon List Price: $54.95 Used from: $50.01 The Hospital Amazon List Price: $14.98 Used from: $8.74 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 31 reviews) "The Hospital" is a great black comedy .

As I work in the Health Care Community I feel that there was gross negligences in the case of Dennis Quaids children. Today schools push the subject matter of Nursing and Doctoring down the throats of people who have no clue as to what they are learninng or how to apply it when they enter the workforce. We are in a vast hurry to educate more nurses and dotors due to the lack of both in the health feild.So they enter their profession and promise to do no harm, yet they do.

They are not qualified to administer drugs, to give support to hospice patients and how to have a motivation that stems from doing the best job they can. I have worked in hospital, doctors offices and patients home. What do I find.

Hurry, skip over this fact, go to something dumb and worry about the end of their shift. In college now I am taking classes with nurses who act only if motivated by a reward system. Pay is not enough!

They want trips, dinners, and gifts. I was astonised to hear them discuss this rather than the fact of what the patient requires. The patient has become invisible.

And as such so has qualified medical care. Buyer Beware! What this country needs is more patient advocates.

With this system the right and care of the patient are overseen by one who is on their side. A caregiver in any healthcare field must be motivated intrinsically. What matter to this person is the care of the patient, not the gifts or birthday parties, not even the pay.

To answer you question that should be asked 24 hours a day, No I do not feel safe in a hospital or even in my doctors office. Sources: Life, Health Care Work, Death of a Child maltby's Recommendations Jacqueline du Pre - Favourite Cello Concertos ~ Boccherini, Dvorak, Elgar, Haydn, Monn, Saint-Saens, Schumann Amazon List Price: $32.98 Used from: $30.45 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 14 reviews) Howard Hanson Conducts American Masterworks Amazon List Price: $39.98 Used from: $158.56 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 2 reviews) Raymond Lewenthal: The Concerto Recordings Amazon List Price: $38.98 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 2 reviews) The NBC Broadcast Concerts, December 1950 Amazon List Price: $79.98 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) .

I don't feel safe in hospitals Unfortunately, I am severely allergic to some very common medications given to asthma patients as well as pain medications. The last surgery I had almost killed me due to a bad reaction to some medication given to me during the surgery to control bleeding and I reacted badly to the anesthesia. My last hospital stay was brief (3 days) but on the first night the head nurse on my floor came in with discharge papers and prescriptions for a bunch of medications, many of which I was highly allergic to and then she made a comment about smoking and that she was including some information with my paperwork to help me stop smoking.

I've never been a smoker so I asked her who she was discharging and she had the wrong patient. So if I hadn't of been somewhat alert and coherent, there's no telling what would have happened and this was the head nurse! I also occasionally get migraines so bad that I have to get injections of a particular medication in the ER but the last time I was there, I was pretty out of it and the ER doctor who was treating me never asked me about allergies nor did he review my paperwork long enough to read about my medication allergies and promptly gave me a shot of dilaudin and I had a severe reaction that caused my breathing to become compromised.So...I am not surprised at what happened with the Quaid twins.It can happen very easily if people get in a hurry and let's face it, there's not enough medical personnel sometimes to adequately spend time with each patient and the hospitals tend to get short-staffed sometimes and they have so much paperwork to complete on each patient that other things get overlooked or they get in a hurry in order to complete all of their tasks and that's when mistakes happen.

I make sure now that I always have someone with me if I ever have to go to the ER or be admitted to the hospital just as a backup to help insure I receive the appropriate care. Sources: personal experience .

1 Regrettably, the more aware you are or can be of your medications the better off you are. In the Quaid case, that hospital REALLY botched things up bad. To begin, rest assured, as Denis Quaid's kids, they were treated better than OUR kids would URL1 make such a BIG mistake on babies they were already treating special is amazing.

I'm speaking from some 25+ years in Hospital Administration.

Regrettably, the more aware you are or can be of your medications the better off you are. In the Quaid case, that hospital REALLY botched things up bad. To begin, rest assured, as Denis Quaid's kids, they were treated better than OUR kids would URL1 make such a BIG mistake on babies they were already treating special is amazing.

I'm speaking from some 25+ years in Hospital Administration.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.