Hospitals can be hazardous to your health

That spoonful of warning can be gleaned from the American Medical Association (AMA) report, which further gives us these alarming (read: scary) findings:

• Roughly one out of 25 patients experienced an adverse reaction (or complication from the medication given) while in the hospital.

• The most common nonoperative adverse events (in 19.4 percent of 1,133 patients) consisted of medication errors.

Doctors often make mistakes – they prescribe the wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong combination.

• Of the adverse events, a huge majority fortunately did not result in serious disability. However, 13.6 percent of the patients died while 2.6 percent suffered permanent disabling injuries.

• A common ground for malpractice litigation (in the US as well as Canada) is medication error. Of the 40 hospitals surveyed, some hair-raising (and life-threatening) 3,427 mistakes were unearthed. In 90,000 malpractice claims over a period of seven years, medication error is the second most prevalent and second most expensive.

• Doctors are mostly responsible for prescribing errors. Errors are often traced to illegible handwriting (most physicians write in hieroglyphics or chicken scratch), misspelling and the use of inappropriate abbreviations in written orders.

• When a patient is attended to by more than one doctor, errors may result if an individual doctor prescribes medication without consulting with the other doctors.

• Doctors should evaluate the patient’s overall status and review all existing drug therapy (the latter is undergoing) before prescribing new or additional medications to guard against possible antagonistic drug interactions (or unfortunate complications).

• Written drug or prescription orders (including signatures) should be legible. Physicians with poor handwriting should print or type medication orders. Medication orders should be clear and unambiguous.

So, before you pop that tablet/capsule into your mouth or shoot that liquid medication down your throat, read these safety tips that may spell the difference between life and death.

• Never swallow any tablet/capsule/liquid or get any injection or suppository without finding out just what you’re being given and why. This is particularly important if you’ve been moved to a new room in the hospital or if there’s a new nurse on the shift.

• Know both the risks and benefits of the medication you’re being given – have someone explain just why they’re giving you this particular medication in this particular dosage. You have the right to refuse any medicine. And like they say, when in doubt, don’t.

To cite a tragic example, a man who was allergic to penicillin almost died when his nurse insisted that he take a penicillin-type antibiotic.

• Always tell your doctor (or nurse) what other medications you’re taking. Never assume the info is in your chart.

• Most of all, report any side effects to determine whether or not what’s supposed to be making you better isn’t actually making you sick.

Fact is, there are some people who are sick and tired of taking medicine. It does pay to always arm yourself with a healthy dose of skepticism when taking medication.

Here’s yet another unfortunate incident involving medication:

Dear Consumerline,

One of my Philippine grand champion Lhasa Apsos had a C-section recently. One of the medicines prescribed for her was methergin (methylengometrine hydrogen maleate). This medication is used for the completion of the third stage of labor and to promote separation of the placenta and minimize blood loss.

I went to Mercury Drug Store to purchase the medicines needed by my dog. I presented my prescription to the lady at the counter. Among the medicines I purchased was the prescribed methergin.

I went home with the medicine I had purchased and proceeded to give one tablet to my dog, fully confident that I had with me the medicine indicated in the prescription. A little later, I looked over the medicines I still had on hand and started making a list of what medications I would need to purchase for the next day.

I noticed that the methergin I had purchased looked different. Initially, I had a very difficult time reading the label on the blister pack. After close scrutiny, I was able to read not methergin as prescribed by the veterinarian but melleril (thioridazine HCL).

I started to panic. I called the branch where I purchased the tablets to ask what melleril is used for, hoping that it belonged to the same generic family as methergin and that maybe, just maybe, I had been issued a generic medicine in the absence of the needed prescription. To my horror, I learned that the tablet dispensed is primarily used by adults for acute schizophrenic episodes. The pharmacist who took my call very efficiently extolled the usefulness of the drug.

I pointed out to her that I had a prescription for methergin and not for melleril. She endorsed my call to her supervisor who attempted to give me a hundred and one reasons as to what could have caused the error. Although she attempted to apologize for the incident, I was not totally satisfied with her justification for the incident.

I decided to read up on the drug and discovered that among the contraindications were patients who are pregnant or lactating!

Somehow, the lady who dispensed the wrong medication was able to locate me. She came over to my home, together with her supervisor, trying to appease me and justify the incident as human error.

There are, I believe, several issues here which I cannot just let pass:

1. The error in dispensing medicine has resulted in great financial loss for me. I lost a puppy that suckled from the bitch to whom I administered the medicine.

2. I now have the additional burden of tube feeding the remaining puppies because I cannot risk putting them back on the bitch to whom the wrong medication was administered.

3. More significant is the danger posed to the bitch herself. Although noted to have occurred in very rare situations only, death to the patient to whom melleril has been wrongly administered has been documented.

Again, there will be those who may say that I should just let the incident pass because, after all, the victim was just a dog. To those who may argue that point, I have other issues that I think need some serious thought, to wit:

1. What happens to the not-so-educated, who obtain their prescriptions from health centers or government hospitals and take the dispensed medicine without knowing any better?

2. What if the medication dispensed is contraindicated by the actual medical situation of the patient?

3. What if such an error results in the patient’s death?

We have to stop these costly errors from happening. Such carelessness should not be taken lightly.

– Joya Gonzalez

Cell phone no. 0917-9930173