According to “Medicalerror is third biggest cause of death in the US, experts say” (2016), the journalist
reported that 250,000 deaths every-year in the United Stated were caused by
medical error. Although in the US has no coding system for this cause but two
researchers Makary, M and Daniel, M at Johns
Hopkins University’s school of medicine had analyzed data from studies since
1999 onward and find out that 9.5% of death cases related to medical error. The medical error is at the third ranging on the
cause of death after heart disease and cancer, and it is far away from the
cause next to is respiratory disease which cause 147,101 deaths in 2015. However,
medical error is not label as a death cause in the US and in 117 countries
according to the World Health Organisation. The researcher recommended that
should label the medical error cause of death in the health report system to
improve the death cases by this cause.
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My Yes/No question is:
Should the health system label medical error as a
cause of death in health report?
My answer is:No, it should not.
Cure is not only a task, a responsibility of a doctor but it
is also the will. No doctor wants to see their patients die. And if the patient
dies, I am sure that the doctors do feel sad although they already do their
best to help and it really effects their emotion. The label of medical error death
case will be a condemnation letter to the doctor. It will be very much effect
to them in two aspects with themselves and patient relative.
For the doctor, they will condemn themselves as a murderer
if the report records the death cause although they try to cure the patient. It
may lead to the psychological effect. They may too careful in making decision
to cure the patient which may lead to late in giving treatment, or even dare
not to take responsibility to the case.
For the patient’s relative, they will easily to accept the death
cause by diseases than by man. They may get angry with the doctor and may harm
them.
There are many ways to improve the medical error aside from
label in health report system. Firstly, the doctors have so much experience
through the cases. Secondly, encouraging doctors write their experience to
share with their collages. Thirdly, conferences on this issue can help the
doctors have more information and learn from other.
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Reference
expert say. The gruardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/03/cause-of-death-united-states-medical-error
Yes, definitely it should. The good intention doesn't mean you can hide the result from your action. Everyone know that the doctor want their patient to get better. I think it is really shameful to the doctor, if their relatives know later that the patients was died and the doctor has never told them that before or try to hide this.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, the patient should learn more risk that the errors can happen everywhere even no matter how careful you try so hard to demolish it away. They should learn the succession rate and failure rate before making a decision about the treatment. When the error do occur, they should learn exactly what has happen. That's the real respect to the medical profession and also the patient who may pass away. Hiding the error is nothing but a shameful way to cope with this kind of problem.
The medicine is not a job of the angel because they are also human. Even they try to act like a god to make someone else to become alive or death. They can have a mistake. They should provide more information to the patients and their relatives while the patients should decrease the expectation from them and make a possible goal together. In some cases, the patient or relative should be open to many possibility which can cause to their result after the treatment.
I totally agree with you that the doctor have to explain to the patients and their relative the percentage of success and failure of the treatment. And up to the patients or relative to decide to go on with the treatment or quit.
DeleteThe issue we are talking here is the medical error which is unwanted, out of control. I believe that there is a committee that will judge all the medical error and will have appropriate punishment to the mistake. However, the label for medical error as a cause of death is unfair to the doctor.
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DeleteActually, I don't quite understand your idea that the medical error is not recorded but the doctor can improve their treatment by communicating their experience. I think it sounds weird. The recording does not lead to punishment only. That kind of idea is quite destructive. I agree with you.
DeleteAnyway, I promote your idea that we should help to transfer the knowledge. We should learn from our mistake and expand it to our profession.
I really agree with Union, In terms of doctors, there is no benefit to hide the fact that patients die. Furthermore, if the patient's relatives know this action, they definitely will upset and may sue doctors who deliberately hide their treatment results.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to people relating to patients, they should realize that all doctor attempt to cure their patients and they also don't want their patients to die. So, if patients die, This situation may happen because of severe diseases, such as cancer and not checking annual health every year. I know that it's hard to admit that your sweethearts die, but you have to admit and don't blame doctors.
I think it shouldn't report as a cause of death in health report but it might be a good idea to write this down like an additional information. If you write it down as a cause of death, it might be bad for a doctor. I agree that no one wants to see their patients die, so it is not good to blame doctors. However, it should be kept as a statistic for that many people such as doctors, governments, health organizations and other related parties will help figure out this problem.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with P' Union, Chan and you. I think it should be reported as a cause of death. When they tell the truth some organizations that have to deal with this would be able to sort about the ways to solve the medical error problems by not letting them to happen again.
ReplyDeleteAs Union’s said, “Hiding the error is nothing but a shameful way to cope with this kind of problem.” I see Union’s point. And the aforementioned comments by many people seem sensible.
ReplyDeleteBecause I don’t’ have background information in this area, I can’t figure out that which kind of cause of death the system should not report. The records should be done so as to improve, to be studied, or to solve problems effectively in the future.
From the patients’ side, it is not fair for them to be concealed a cause of death by a medical errors, although no one want to see such errors happen. Apart from them, new patients will be treated with least errors because of the improvement of previous errors recorded correctly and openly.
In the aspect of doctors who do their best to cure patients, I believe that medical errors are always unwanted. Yet, it would be worth learning unexpected mistakes for doctors to find the way to prevent problems and solve them appropriately.
If medical errors are the true murderers of patients, the victims should get fairness.