Reducing Medical Errors May Require A Simple Solution
As a Bergen and Monmouth County medical malpractice lawyer, I am aware of per se negligence or what is referred to in the legal community as res ipsa loquitur type of negligence by doctors or other staff in hospitals. So, it comes as a relief to know that many of these types of obvious errors are not only preventable, but also easily preventable.
According to this news report that relies on a study on the effects of using checklists to go though pre and post surgery routines, post surgery death rates in hospitals can be dramatically reduced if surgeons and other staff in the surgical theater actually use a simple checklist as a guideline of sorts. The checklist, that's been designed by the World Health Organization includes 19 points, including such sweet and simple gems like
- Mark the area or body part to be operated with a pen.
- Make sure that you have the right patient on the table. Ask his name.
- After the surgery, make sure that you haven’t left needles, sponges or other calling cards behind in the patient's body.
Hardly rocket scientist stuff, but according to the study that was conducted across a total of eight international cities, the effects of using a checklist like this reduces post surgery hospital deaths by close to 50 per cent. Post surgery complications dropped by nearly one third.
The results of the study have been encouraging enough for a number of countries, including Britain, to include these steps in a checklist that they will make mandatory in their hospitals. To be fair, American facilities already do use some of these steps as part of their own surgery checklist, and the Joint Commission, a body that's responsible for accrediting hospitals has said that it will consider including more of the steps on the checklist in American operating rooms.
People use checklists to ensure that a job goes smoothly all the time - from a mother who makes a list of all things to pack before a long family trip, to the pilot who ticks off from a list before he prepares for take off, people make use of checklists to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as planned. So it makes sense that patients would be safer when doctors operate with a checklist.
This study only corroborates what those of us who work in the medical malpractice field have known all along – that many post surgery complications, medical injuries and deaths in fact can be reduced.
