Preventing Healthcare Errors Is Up To You!

That famous phrase “trust me, I’m a doctor” is a little too famous when you take a step back. Although most of us go through life without a single hitch in terms of healthcare, many people aren’t so lucky. They don’t let just anyone practice as a doctor, but it’s an industry like any other, and errors can and do happen. Here are a few ways to protect yourself from one.

At the Pharmacy

From Wikimedia

Whenever you’re picking up some medication from the pharmacy, be sure to double-check that it’s the drug that your doctor actually prescribed. A massive proportion of the cases handled by medical malpractice attorneys involve someone taking the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage. Having established you’ve got the right medicine, if you’re uncertain about anything on the label, be sure to ask. For example, if a label says “four doses daily”, it may be unclear whether this means a pill every six hours or four within your normal waking hours. When it comes to liquid medication, always ask your pharmacist what the best apparatus for measuring it is. It’s pretty common for people to use regular, household teaspoons, for example, which can be over or under what a “teaspoon” means on a medicine label.

In Hospitals

If you need a specific operation or procedure, and you have a choice of hospitals you can go to, try and choose one that gets a lot of these kinds of procedures. Studies have shown time and time again that patients generally have better results when they’re treated in hospitals with a lot of experience in their kind of condition. It’s also a good idea to pay attention to the hygiene standards in the hospital where you’re being treated, and checking that your caregivers are washing their hands regularly. Yes, this is standard procedure, but in such a fast-paced environment it can be easy for even doctors to forget. When you’re ready to be discharged, make sure you’re absolutely clear on the treatment plan you need to follow when you get home. This includes common side-effects that may come with your medicines, and when it’s safe for you to get back to your day-to-day activities. It’s pretty common for doctors to assume their patients know more than they do in some cases.

In the Run-Up to Surgery

From Wikimedia

Surgery can be very daunting, and you may want to distract yourself from an impending operation in any way possible. However, it’s essential to make sure you, your primary doctor, and the surgeon who’s going to perform the operation are all crystal clear on exactly what’s going to be done. As you can imagine, major errors in surgery, like making an incision in the left knee when it should have been the right, are extremely rare. However, there have been isolated cases, and just once can be too often. The good news is that it’s preventable by you, the patient, asking a few simple questions.

Whenever you’re receiving medical care, keep these precautions in mind.