"They should ask more questions about what medicine is being prescribed for what. . .Internists are covering for PCPs who don't know the patients all that well. . .Hopefully, someone will be with the very ill who will ask on their behalf."
COMMENTARY: When you are sick enough to be hospitalized, you are not the one asking questions; baby twins do not ask questions, and very few patients have family who can formulate questions on their behalf 24/7. Even fewer patients can hire a responsible and knowledgable human bedside monitor.
Patients are patients. They are not in the hospital to police it. Once again, we are paying more for services and getting less. What are we paying for, if not c-a-r-e?
Furthermore the most gross negligence was attributed to nurses as opposed to written documentation providers. How many nurses do you know who want to be questioned about what s/he is doing and would give an extremely ill person an answer that would be truthful as well as understood? That was such a cop-out answer coming from a medical physician!
For medical errors that exist in written documents, baby twins do not point those out, either. Sick people do not confirm that they are being given the same medications they were prescribed at home. Laymen cannot monitor medical doctors with 12 years of education. That was such a cop-out answer coming from a medical physician.
Medical transcriptionists need to speak to physicians' groups about expert credentialed MTs who can be trusted and expected to provide, at least, accurately documented records to significantly lessen the potential for medical mistakes. Other sector of healthcare need to design an effective self-monitoring system for their healthcare workers. The medical community needs to take responsibility for errors and not crank out ridiculous "solutions" as the above.
All it takes for poor medical records to continue to be full of errors is for knowledgeable (wo)men to do nothing. The recipe for disaster persists.
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