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It seems like every other time you turn on the television or read a paper, there is something about a catastrophic medical error. A surgeon amputates the wrong limb, or a doctor’s handwriting was so bad, the pharmacist dispensed the wrong medication, which almost killed the patient. The list of widely publicized medical errors is exhaustive, proving that physicians, like all humans, make mistakes.
Whether it is a matter of being sleep-deprived, overworked, hypoglycemic from missing meals, or simply just making an honest error, mistakes will happen. Unfortunately, in medicine, an otherwise simple mistake can be devastating.
Instead of pretending our medical school training somehow lifted us above the ranks of the human condition and taught us the elusive art of perfection, why not embrace our normalcy? Like everyone else, we put our pants on like everyone else, one leg at a time. A little humility never hurt anyone. To lessen the odds of adverse events, why not acknowledge our limitations and invite our patients into their own medical care?
We have all had patients who were cynical or anxious, and whose mistrust of the medical profession could hardly be hidden. Perhaps we can help assuage their concerns by empowering them to help themselves during the current hospitalization, and future ones as well.
Simple things, such as counseling patients about the importance of ambulation, not just to prevent deconditioning, but to help prevent blood clots, takes mere seconds.
Informing them that while keeping that Foley catheter in may be convenient, it increases their risk of a UTI is yet another of numerous brief, but power-packed lessons we can teach them. While the thought of a simple bladder infection may not be enough to motivate some of your most difficult patients, the chance that that UTI may turn into septic shock, endanger their life, and prolong their hospital stay, and their medical bills, is sure to put a fire under many patients to get it out as soon as possible.
We are part of their medical team, but they should play a vital role as well. We need to empower them to play a major role in their own care to improve their care, both in the short and long term.
A few seconds can go a long way at improving care and lowering health care costs.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie, Md., who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care.
It seems like every other time you turn on the television or read a paper, there is something about a catastrophic medical error. A surgeon amputates the wrong limb, or a doctor’s handwriting was so bad, the pharmacist dispensed the wrong medication, which almost killed the patient. The list of widely publicized medical errors is exhaustive, proving that physicians, like all humans, make mistakes.
Whether it is a matter of being sleep-deprived, overworked, hypoglycemic from missing meals, or simply just making an honest error, mistakes will happen. Unfortunately, in medicine, an otherwise simple mistake can be devastating.
Instead of pretending our medical school training somehow lifted us above the ranks of the human condition and taught us the elusive art of perfection, why not embrace our normalcy? Like everyone else, we put our pants on like everyone else, one leg at a time. A little humility never hurt anyone. To lessen the odds of adverse events, why not acknowledge our limitations and invite our patients into their own medical care?
We have all had patients who were cynical or anxious, and whose mistrust of the medical profession could hardly be hidden. Perhaps we can help assuage their concerns by empowering them to help themselves during the current hospitalization, and future ones as well.
Simple things, such as counseling patients about the importance of ambulation, not just to prevent deconditioning, but to help prevent blood clots, takes mere seconds.
Informing them that while keeping that Foley catheter in may be convenient, it increases their risk of a UTI is yet another of numerous brief, but power-packed lessons we can teach them. While the thought of a simple bladder infection may not be enough to motivate some of your most difficult patients, the chance that that UTI may turn into septic shock, endanger their life, and prolong their hospital stay, and their medical bills, is sure to put a fire under many patients to get it out as soon as possible.
We are part of their medical team, but they should play a vital role as well. We need to empower them to play a major role in their own care to improve their care, both in the short and long term.
A few seconds can go a long way at improving care and lowering health care costs.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie, Md., who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care.
It seems like every other time you turn on the television or read a paper, there is something about a catastrophic medical error. A surgeon amputates the wrong limb, or a doctor’s handwriting was so bad, the pharmacist dispensed the wrong medication, which almost killed the patient. The list of widely publicized medical errors is exhaustive, proving that physicians, like all humans, make mistakes.
Whether it is a matter of being sleep-deprived, overworked, hypoglycemic from missing meals, or simply just making an honest error, mistakes will happen. Unfortunately, in medicine, an otherwise simple mistake can be devastating.
Instead of pretending our medical school training somehow lifted us above the ranks of the human condition and taught us the elusive art of perfection, why not embrace our normalcy? Like everyone else, we put our pants on like everyone else, one leg at a time. A little humility never hurt anyone. To lessen the odds of adverse events, why not acknowledge our limitations and invite our patients into their own medical care?
We have all had patients who were cynical or anxious, and whose mistrust of the medical profession could hardly be hidden. Perhaps we can help assuage their concerns by empowering them to help themselves during the current hospitalization, and future ones as well.
Simple things, such as counseling patients about the importance of ambulation, not just to prevent deconditioning, but to help prevent blood clots, takes mere seconds.
Informing them that while keeping that Foley catheter in may be convenient, it increases their risk of a UTI is yet another of numerous brief, but power-packed lessons we can teach them. While the thought of a simple bladder infection may not be enough to motivate some of your most difficult patients, the chance that that UTI may turn into septic shock, endanger their life, and prolong their hospital stay, and their medical bills, is sure to put a fire under many patients to get it out as soon as possible.
We are part of their medical team, but they should play a vital role as well. We need to empower them to play a major role in their own care to improve their care, both in the short and long term.
A few seconds can go a long way at improving care and lowering health care costs.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Glen Burnie, Md., who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care.