From Health magazine
In 1999, Susan Sheridan’s husband, Pat, went in for surgery to remove a tumor in his neck. After the surgery, the neurosurgeon gave the Eagle, Idaho, couple great news: The mass was benign—a fact the neurosurgeon confirmed after looking at the pathology report two weeks later.
“Little did we know that the pathologist had been conducting ongoing stains on the tumor and had released a final pathology report 21 days after the surgery,” says Susan, now 48. “It said ‘malignant sarcoma.’” Cancer. But the Sheridans never got this critical update because it was mistakenly filed away at Pat’s doctor’s office without the physician or patient ever seeing it.
Within six months, Pat’s cancer had spread dramatically; he died of it in 2002, at the age of 45, leaving behind two school-age children. Had Pat’s malignancy been aggressively treated after that first surgery, he would likely be alive today. “There was no system in place to make sure a life-or-death document was read,” explains Susan, who discovered the error after requesting Pat’s medical records.
The mistake that cost Pat Sheridan his life took just seconds. Even if most errors don’t have such tragic consequences, the circumstances that prompt them are everywhere—and screwups happen often. In fact, 95% of physicians report having witnessed a serious medical mistake, and 56% say they’ve personally been involved in a serious preventable error, says Sanjaya Kumar, MD, author of Fatal Care: Survive in the U.S. Health System. And these mistakes kill. “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 seminal report that first brought to light the problem of medical mistakes, noted that up to 98,000 preventable deaths happen each year in hospitals. But deaths in other settings, including doctor’s offices, were about three times that.
Next page: Why the doctor’s office is so risky
Comments (3)
My GP has decided to give my husband and I our medication by weekly dispensing in a box. I told him I was not happy with this and he stated as he was our gp it was his decision. A friend of my Grandaughter who lives in the same area had this weekly dispensing, she is on a 10 mg cancer drug and the pharmacist prescribed 100 mgs one week by mistake luckily her husband noted the pill had 100 mgs on it and took it back to the chemist. Neither my husband or I can see very well in fact my husband in registered blind. Please help as we are very afraid the same thing could happen to us. Many thanks
Dispensing boxes are a great way to help remember if medication has been taken already and to help avoid missed or double doses. However, as a Registered Nurse, I can attest to how easily medication errors can happen which is why there are multiple checks done before a patient recieves his/her medication in the hospital setting. What your doctor is doing is preventing you from double checking what your are taking and I would certainly find another doctor. Your doctor is incorect to state that the decision is up to him, as the patient the decision is ALWAYS yours. If your doctoris completely disreagarding your opinions and concerns you should waste no time in finding someone who actually listens to you.
I understand that my GP must see at least 30 patients per day other than me and that he simply doesn’t have the time to spend more than 7 minutes with me, so I don’t believe in “pushing” or pressuring my doctor to do anything beyond what his expertise recommnends. I think the kind of info in this article only causes more paranoia, wasted time during appointments, and needless tests than what’s already happening.