Not a moment too soon
December 31, 2012 -- As part of its annual wrap-up of the year's events in medical care, the Medscape site offers this fascinating summary: 10 Medical Errors that Changed the Standard of Care. We all know that hospitals are dangerous places. As I have discussed elsewhere, one of the big reasons for this is nosocomial infections (bugs you catch in hospitals). Another is errors -- things like wrong-site amputation, pressure ulcers, and medication allergies. Fascinating... and horrifying. The good news is that the industry is paying attention and making the changes that are making these errors rare. And not a moment too soon! |
|
Dan Keller's Nursing, Health Policy & Healthcare Technology Blog
Nursing Informatics · Clinical Perspectives · Healthcare Systems
"The United States alone [among wealthy countries] treats health care as a commodity to be distributed according to the ability to pay rather than a social service to be distributed according to medical need." — JAMA (2003), 290, 798