Aren't hospitals supposed to heal?

Just read this story about Dennis Quaid's newborn twins being given an overdose of Heparin (a blood thinner) while they are in the hospital. We're not talking about a small oversight either... the babies were given 10,000 units instead of the 10 units that were prescribed.

How does someone mistake 10,000 for 10?

Making matters worse, this occurred at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, one of the most reknowned hospitals in the world, and it happened to three patients in all. One would think that such "preventable errors" would not occur in a hospital that prides itself on being the best of the best, and one would also expect that such an error would be caught before it occurred three times.

Unfortunately, having worked in a hospital myself, I know that such errors are all too frequent. I am not a nurse, but I worked with nurse managers who were responsible - in part - for quality control in their respective departments. The thing I learned is that everyone who works in a hospital is human, and therefore capable of making mistakes. That applies to everyone from your neurosurgeon to the guy mopping the floor.

More important to us, as patients, is that any one of those mistakes has the potential to do us harm. For example, one friend of mine signed herself out AMA after being given soiled towels to use after having had a C-section. Luckily she started out drying her hair, and discovered the mess on the towels before they got near her incision. But it was a close call, and she left the hospital feeling she was far safer from infection in her own house than in that purportedly "sterile" environment.

Another friend nearly died when her doctor nicked her colon during a "simple procedure". As if that weren't bad enough, both the doctor and the ER she went to later pooh-poohed her complaints about pain, fever, and excessive bleeding until she collapsed at home. By then, she had to have 70% of her blood volume replaced, and spent more than a month in the hospital getting massive doses of antibiotics to fight the infections caused by bodily waste mixing with her blood. After years of pain, repeated corrective surgeries, and various other treatments that I can't even list, she still doesn't have her life back, and likely never will.

Technology was supposed to help prevent many of those human errors. They have computers dispensing meds, lasers and high-tech cameras to aid in surgical procedures, and just about everything from your blood pressure to your location are electronically monitored if you're in the hospital these days. But even with all that technology supposedly making our hospital stays safer, accidents like the one mentioned above still happen.

So if you're going to be in the hospital, be on your guard. Ask questions, and insist on answers. Double check what they're putting in your IV, take a good look at the towels, bring your own toothbrush, etc. Even more importantly, be prepared by assigning someone in your family to closely monitor every aspect of your care if you are unable to (due to illness or state of consciousness). Also, make sure that person's name is listed as your authorized representative with all your doctors, clinics, or hospitals - otherwise the staff won't tell them anything due to HIPAA restrictions.

Being sick or hospitalized is not something any of us want to think about. But spending a little time getting prepared in case something happens could be the most important thing you do for your own health - right up there with mammograms, annual physicals, and wearing seat belts.

Basically, it could mean the difference between recovery and death.

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