Hospitals Are Not As Safe As You Think They Are

Lisa Lindell

Hospitals Are Not As Safe As You Think They Are

I was baptized by fire during my husband’s 108-day hospitalization. He was admitted to one of the finest hospitals in our country following a burn injury. I knew he was in a great facility because I have absorbed all the PR and advertising touting their wonderful and caring treatment for years. We were humbled and grateful he was being treated there.

The reality is quite a bit different. As an accountant I had no medical experience but trusted he was in good hands. That trust was slowly eroded by repeated instances of their failure to provide even the most basic care adequately. Obvious signs of decline in the patient were ignored and he was left to rot. Additional complications and threats to his survival continued to be heaped upon him by reckless and sloppy medical care. The entire experience quickly became a battle for his life; my sister and I vs. the healthcare providers. It all started with a mistake in the radiology department that had devastating and deadly consequences to the patient. How’d they catch the mistake? Because of my desperate phone calls to his doctors, only one returned my call and listened.

In another example he acquired resistant bacteria in his lungs that also almost killed him by suffocation. I know burn patients are susceptible to infections. I’m referring to an organism that lives in hospitals, it didn’t start growing in his lungs because he was a burn patient, it was delivered to him because he was on a burn unit. I watched with my own eyes the literal parade of medical providers in and out of his room ignoring infection control protocol. The nightmare continues for 108 days.

Over two million people a year become the victims of these secondary hospital infections and 90,000 of them die. According to the JAMA, it has nothing to do with the injury or illness of the patient, but a result of being admitted to a hospital.

Medication errors—the Institute of Medicine estimates medication errors are injuring or killing 1.5 million people a year.

If there were a deadly organism in your child’s school the building would be evacuated and sterilized. If I showed my husband the same level of neglect at home, I’d have a criminal record. Why does this continue to be allowed in our healthcare facilities? Surgical site errors, drug errors, misdiagnosis, mistakes, recklessness; who’s protecting us? There’s no incentive to deliver quality care to the patient and nobody is accountable to the patient.

The regulatory and accreditation facilities aren’t working for you, they’re working for their customer, the hospital. Physicians are accountable to their insurance carrier or attorney, everybody except you. The hospital is guided by their bottom-line, not taking care of you. Nurses are overhead and the fewer they can put on the floor, the better. Have healthcare costs declined as a result of malpractice caps? I didn’t think so.

If you know somebody who has been admitted to a hospital, families and friends need to work in shifts to maintain a bedside presence 24/7. Keep a journal and stay involved in all aspects of their care. Patients should designate a trusted decision maker in writing immediately. Maintain a sterile environment around the patient, be familiar with all medications and how they interact with each other, verify medication and dosage before it’s administered. Follow-up on test results, make sure whoever ordered them knows the results. Do not leave the bedside for any reason; go with the patient for procedures as much as possible. Try to work with the healthcare providers. Many facilities will not welcome you. Be pleasant and persistent. You have to become an advocate for your patient or yourself. You have to become an expert on your illness or injury. Communication is literally a killer when it comes to healthcare. You are the captain of your healthcare team; speak up if something doesn’t smell right to you. All our advancements in medicine are going right out the window when it comes to delivering care to the patient. Managing your own care is crucial in the out-patient setting as well.

My husband survived, no thanks to world-class medical care. I’m sure they chalk him up in the “win” column, when in reality his hospital experience was a total failure and the most terrifying experience of my life. If he would have died, it would have been classified as “complications” from his injury when in fact it would have been as a result of his treatment. Our healthcare system is in crisis and it’s only a matter of time before you or yours need care, be prepared for hard work.

Lisa Lindell: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 10:20 AM, Jan 18, 2007 in
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I am executive producer of a film called THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE ENTERING THE HOSPITAL. I read your story and thought your readers would like to know what I have been learning from patient safety experts ... people need to become active participants in their healthcare in order to keep themselves safe from infection and medical error.

One patient safety expert said our film should be in every medicine cabinet in America. Our film was independently produced out of our own pockets to avoid being steered by a sponsor/funder. It was inspired by one of our team members who contracted a terrible infection due to medical error.

Besides being available on our website, www.patientsafetyvideo.com, it is also being sold on the websites of the Joint Commission, the Institute For Safe Medication Practices and National Council on Patient Information and Education (NCPIE). As you know, the ISMP is the organization that released the data saying 1.5 million drug errors happen annually. Our film contains seven important questions we all must ask whenever we are given a drug to make sure there is NO error.

We would appreciate anything that you could do to help get word out about our film. We know it can help save lives. Patient safety experts think our film can help and they all agree that patients should be learning how to keep themselves and loved ones safe while they are in the hospital. Unfortunately, patients are avoiding taking the steps necessary to learn. The patient safety experts compare it to how we avoid writing our Last Will & Testament. I guess the thought of being hospitalized is just too scary for any of us to think about. However, I recently found out that 55% of all hospitalizations actually begin in the Emergency Room so being prepared is critical because you never know when you might be hospitalized. That is one of the reasons I made a film that helps people learn how to be safe. I had a good friend who suffered medical errors and when he told me what happened I realized I wouldn't know how to keep myself safe. If I didn't know I knew there were thousands of people who also didn't know.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.

Sadly, this is so true. I worked in a level 2 trauma facility for 9 years (I am an RN). There are many nurses and doctors who are very vigilant about infection control. There are also many who aren't. I have always encouraged family members to stay if they could and wanted to. Keeping a diary may make some feel suspicious or offended, but it is a very good idea. This includes the time of phone calls made to your doctor and when they were returned. It is also a good idea to ask your provider to wash their hands when they enter the room if they don't do it in front of you. I would say most nurses are rushed because the hospitals routinely short staff. They think they can get away with it by claiming there is a nursing shortage. There wouldn't be if nurses were treated better by administration!