Our deadly health care system

You would think that the individuals in whose hands you place your lives would treat with all due respect. Some studies have been conducted, however, which indicate that mistakes are happening and corners are being cut; these shortcomings are almost NEVER reported.

Perhaps most of the medical workers who would not report a life-jeopardising incident involving their co-workers do so because they are afraid of losing their job or causing their malpractice premiums to rise. If this is the case, then we need to do some serious reform so that medical professionals can express their discontent when they see a patient put into jeopardy.

Majority of Health Care Workers Ignore Deadly Mistakes

source: mercola.com

Though patients might like to believe they are in good hands while being cared for at the hospital, findings show nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, hospital mistakes are a large contributor to the tens of thousands of deaths due to medical errors in the United States each year.

A major part of the problem: Doctors, nurses and other health care workers rarely challenge a colleague when they see a mistake being made in patient care.

Unfortunate Findings

To gather data, researchers spent more than 10,000 hours observing and interviewing more than 2,000 health workers at 19 hospitals across America. Among the disturbing evidence they found:

• Doctors (84 percent) and nurses and other health care providers (62 percent) have seen co-workers repeatedly take shortcuts that could place patients in danger

• Doctors (88 percent) and nurses and other health care providers (48 percent) work with people who show poor clinical judgment

• Fewer than 10 percent of doctors, nurses and other caregivers said they directly confront colleagues about their concerns; one-fifth of those doctors have seen harm come to patients as a result of the behavior of those colleagues

One positive outcome researches encountered was that those who raised concerns observed better patient care by their peers and were more satisfied and committed to their jobs because of their honesty.

Some instances health workers were reluctant to talk to their colleagues about included matters concerning:

Competence Broken rules Mistakes

Teamwork Lack of support Disrespect and micromanagement from doctors or supervisors

Additionally, reasons for not speaking up included: lack of confidence in their own abilities, doubts that saying something would do any good and fear of retaliation.

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