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Facts About Hospital Errors

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HOSPITAL ERRORS

Studies show that medical errors can occur in about one-third of hospital admissions. It is really scary to admit but the facts point out that medical errors are about 10 times more common than what was previously estimated. One study is authored by David C. Classen, MD who is an associate professor of the Salt Lake City’s University of Utah in medicine. Dr. Classen used a new tracking tool to be able to accurately determine where and what areas the common medical errors happen and for them to focus on improving these areas. He doesn’t want to ruin his profession by exposing these medical errors but his main goal is to promote awareness with his fellow physicians with what they need to improve in these areas. Through voluntary reporting and other methods, Dr. Classen was able to develop a new tracking method for determining medical errors.

Protecting Patients From Common Hospital Errors
To name a few most common hospital errors include some medication related issues, hospital acquired infection and procedure mistakes. These are the most common ones which Dr. Classen’s procedure was able to determine. But according to him, proper knowledge by asking question and talking with the physician could reduce the risk of medical errors.It is very important for a patients to know why they are taking certain medication and what effects does it bring to their body when they start taking it. And talking to the physician that would be responsible for the patient’s surgery is also very important. Talking with the physician about all the steps involved and asking questions that might be difficult for a patient to understand are just some of the important procedures that are sometimes taken for granted. A patient should also make sure that when they will undergo certain surgery they should bring an advocate, either a family or a friend that could watch over things and can also help them get a clearer view of things.There are times when a surgery needs to use certain devices like urinary catheter. A patient should ask their physician daily of when they will remove it. Because sometimes infection might develop through this and it should be removed as soon as it is no longer necessary.
Looking For A Second Opinion
It is very important that a patient should seek for a second opinion if they are not satisfied with the findings of their first physician. Some conditions has numerous ways of treatment and there are also several conditions which have the same symptoms and different physicians might have different findings.Another patient safety expert Peter Pronovost, MD believes that the new tracking tool is way too far from fail-safe. He is a professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine on anesthesiology and critical care medicine. According to him this tool is not really a good measure of the hospital errors problem.Though patients should be very careful in choosing where they will have their surgeries, like researching about the hospital’s bloodstream infection rate and such. And they should make sure that the physician that would handle the operation has a lot of experience in that area. Even in the medical field practice really makes it perfect says Dr. Pronovost. Though he doesn’t deny the fact that this new tracking tool shows the need for patient awareness and system improvement on the medical field, it is just another call to action to raise awareness on hospital errors.

If you have anything to add to this post, please feel free to Post a comment or share your thoughts through Facebook, Twitter or comment section below to join the conversation.


 

Antibiotic Resisting Bacteria The Rise Of Superbugs

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VIRUSThe dangers of having a new breed of antibiotic resistant bacteria

Alexander Fleming’s great discovery of the mould Penicillium led the way to the discovery of the antibiotic known as penicillin.  Even then, Fleming was well aware of the danger of misusing the drugs especially when a person would under dose his prescription. During his lecture on December 11th 1945 he included a warning at the end of his Nobel lecture about his very important discovery. Under dosing would expose the disease causing bacteria into a non-lethal amount of antibiotic that would eventually make them resistant to the drug they have been exposed to.

The penicillin is a very important discovery in the field of medical science alongside with the other antibiotics and vaccination drugs. But Fleming’s warning of the side effects of the under dosed drugs has never left their mind. The danger of starting a new strain of a resistant bacterium that would eventually cause the start of an epidemic which has no known treatment available is really scary.

Irresistible

The most common causes of antibiotic resistance are through convenience and laziness. People who often misuse these antibiotics do not realize the impact of their action. Bacterias are not similar to viruses and antibiotics only work against bacteria. Most patients would insist on taking antibiotics for a viral infection. And there are also some doctors who write unnecessary prescriptions. But this would eventually lead to a breeding ground for resistant bacteria that would infect other individuals. Wrong intake or under taking the prescribed drug would also cause bacterial resistance.

Creating a new strain of bacteria could cause a new form of dangerous illness that has no known cure. This will result to the long stay of infected people at the hospital and might also result in complicating their treatment. The worst case scenario, patients would die due to limited treatment methods. There was once a research done at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. Samples were taken from the 1,400 patients where they found a resistant strain that infected 188 people and 12 died from it because of the limited treatment done to the patients. The new bacteria usually infects children and the old ones. People with cancer and already suffering from other illnesses are also more likely to be infected with the new strain of bacteria.

Developing a new drug would cost a lot and it will not be ready in an instant. A series of research and experiments are needed to prove that the drug is safe and that it really can fight the new disease-causing bacteria. In America alone about 1% or $17- $26 billion a year from their health care goes to spending on studying for cure on the resistance antibiotics. Other countries would only result to buying certain alternative but doesn’t promise the same effectiveness as the actual drug and might cause another new strain of bacteria in the process.

Action and not panic

Doing nothing is one option or probably the easiest way of dealing with the new strain of bacteria. Since it will cost a lot and there is no certainty of being able to discover a cure. One best example is during the mid-1940s when penicillin was not invented, dying from bacterial infection was just normal. But when the antibiotics and vaccines have been discovered, a large number of patients were saved because of the available treatment. And this inspires our medical physician and researchers to study and discover drugs and cure for certain diseases caused by the antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Thinking that resistance might be self-limiting is one of the most basic biological reasons that people often believes in. There are several studies which show that it would be hard or impossible for a certain bacteria to change or adjust its characteristic or physiological traits to become resistant to a certain drug. It often requires a lot of energy that most of the microorganism cannot do.

Several experiments and studies show that most of the antibiotic resistance resulted from inappropriate or unnecessary use of the drugs. Misuse, overuse or improper dosing and even using substandard or much diluted medicines are major causes of the increasing cases of antibiotic resistance. If there won’t be any strict policy against the misuse of antibiotics and a certain system that would monitor the proper usage of antibiotics, this practice would never be corrected.

All involved sectors like the government, drug companies and health-care providers should work hand in hand to educate and help the people learn the proper way to treat themselves. Poor countries should ask and be able to avail of the right drugs freely from charitable agencies.

Agencies that regulate the distribution of these drugs should also strictly be monitored so that substandard and counterfeit drugs will not be given to clueless patients. And certain methods should be taken so that antibiotics are only administered properly to patients who badly need it.

Patient should also follow the prescription from their doctor. They should drink the exact amount of antibiotic given by their doctor and not stop when they started to feel better. Doctors should make sure that their patients followed their prescribed drug dosage.

Smart microbes against ignorant humans

Making new antibiotics is another approach in dealing the resistance problem. Making a new drug that the resistant bacteria are not familiar of, will probably be able to fight and get rid of it.

Each year the World Health Organization celebrates a World Health Day on the 7th day of April.  Each year they create a slogan that would summarize the goal of the organization for the whole year. They are able to use the slogan “No action today, no cure tomorrow” this completely mirrors their efforts in discovering new drugs that would fight the new strain of bacteria that are developing.

Researchers now faced with the challenge unlike what those researchers have to do before penicillin was created. And most drug makers today are not being successful in creating new line of medicine that would fight the resistant bacteria. They mostly give funds to the study of how proteins behave but did not really help in solving the continuing problems they face. And there are other signs that show large drug companies such as Pfizer are running low with their funding which have resulted to budget cutting in their research area.

Bad luck might also be the reason why there is lack of new antibiotics in the market. Most companies and medical experts would agree that there is a need for discovering new medicine for the developing new resistant strain of bacteria but most of their research and funding is not enough to be able to successfully create a new drug.

But experts are not giving up in researching and experimenting for the new cure. Though most are just done under a private funding that would mean that they sometimes lack all the necessary tools to make their work faster and more efficient.

The side effect of common antibiotic usage

All of the problems which is caused by the resistant strain of bacteria are because of the over usage of the antibiotic drugs. Ramanan Laxminarayan of the Princeton University is considered one of the major professional that still continues researching about the presence of the resistance bacteria is trying to answer all the common questions relating to it. And he believes that with a mixture of incentives and scourges they will be able to produce a perfect solution to the resistant strain. They must insure that there are enough prize funds or even just a guaranteed-purchase arrangement for the new antibiotic or drugs that would help speed up the process into creating certain cure. Companies will only develop drugs where they can get a large profit. And developing a system that would help in properly deploying the new drugs would mean that more patients would be able to afford taking the necessary prescription their doctor advised. He also believes the positive effect of having stricter dispensing guidelines for medical physicians and also pharmacists of antibiotics that would help in lessening the hazard of overtreatment on patients though this perfect system would take a lot of effort and financial aid to fulfill this into reality.

A little realistic solution is also better according to Derrick Crook, an Oxford microbiologist consultant, who thinks this is the right solution. He believes that it is very difficult to massively restrict or prohibit the use of antibiotic or antimicrobials if the patient feels or thinks that it is doing well. Ignorance with the proper use and effects of the drugs is also a big factor in the difficulty of restricting the use of antibiotics.

Tim Peto one of Dr. Crook’s colleagues at Oxford is very skeptical of the idea that the resistance might cause certain catastrophic effect to humans. He even points out that in modern surgery the risk of infection is really low and it is close to zero at this moment. And if a certain resistant strain would raise most of the orthopedic, discretionary but life-enhancing procedures and cataract replacement would simply stop. Not necessarily the end of the world but just a step backward for the medical field.

 

Back Surgery, Cost of Insurance and Ineffectiveness of Care

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BACK SURGERYAs the number of orthopedic surgeons in the USA is growing so is the number of back surgeries performed on patients with back pain. Often time it is a 50/50 chance that patient will be pain free after a surgical procedure due to the soft tissue fibrosis and lack of proper post surgical rehabilitation. Did you know that over 100,000 people die each year in this country from surgery complications. This number by far exceeds the number of automobile accidents in the entire country. The ratio is 23 percent for men and 32 percent for women.

It is not the secret that the health care system in this country is the most expensive in the world. Thus all U.S. citizens must get the best educated doctors who in theory would make the healthiest nation in the world and would provide the best medical care available. World Health Organization stated that as of 2000 the U.S. ranked #1 in cost, #72 in population health, #37 in health care delivery with 48 million Americans uninsured. France is ranked as #4, #4 and #1 and only 1% uninsured. The question is why French get more medical care for their money than we are?

TIME Magazine stated that U.S. spends more to get less then any other industrialized country in the world. Why such a waste of resources?  This country spent twice as much on a sick-care as it did on food in 2006 and more than China’s 1.3 billion citizens consumed altogether. Wow, we can feed countries like India and China for the whole year.

President Barack Obama stated: “Today, we are spending over 2 trillion a year on health care – almost 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. And yet, for all this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured; the quality of our care is often lower; and we aren’t any healthier. In fact, citizens in some countries that spend less than we do are actually living longer than we do.”

According to Forbes Magazine Back Pain cost over $40 billion for treatment alone. If we include disability, work loss and other factors the total cost would range somewhere between $100-200 billion per year. That is quite a large amount of money. Most of the countries do not even produce this much. About 3 million people went to Hospital E.R. for lower back pain which cost $9.5 billion. Low Back Pain is the number nine most expensive condition treated in U.S. Hospitals. If people could only maintain their bodies the way they maintain their vehicles things would be different. Regular Chiropractic care could prevent biomechanical vertebral misalignments and therefore save an individual from unnecessary expensive surgical procedure.

Pran Manga, PhD. MPhil health economist stated: “ There is an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that chiropractic therapy of lower back pain is more cost-effective than medical management.” Many other studies proved that chiropractic manipulation for none specific low back pain is far more effective than other forms of treatments. Millions of patients are satisfied with the results that they are getting with chiropractic care. Watch several video testimonials on this blog. Only 42 out of 131 military treatment facilities have access to a chiropractic care due to the medical bureaucracy within the Department of Defense.

What would you do if you had low back pain?

  1. Go To a Hospital and Get Pain Killers and Possible Referral for a Surgery?

  2. Go To a Chiropractor?

  3. Do Nothing and Wait Till the Pain Goes Away On Its Own?

 

 

 

Medical Care Cost and its Relationship to Medical Education

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San Leandro ChiropracticMany never think about Medical Care Cost and its Relationship to Medical Education. Recently I have come across a very interesting article about the cost of Health Care in the USA. Every American citizen thinks that US Health care system is best in the world. The reality is very different. The cost of the health care system in this country is the most expensive in the world. Many countries have as  advanced medical care system as the USA with much less cost per citizen.

Many want to know when is the change going to happen?  People are sick and tired of drowning in medical bills. It is never ending cycle. The cause could be, in my own opinion, is the high cost of education in this country and privatization of medical care. It takes about 11 years to become a medical doctor, and that is just being a general practitioner. If one wants to specialize in something, additional 4 years are required. The amount of loans these doctors take sum up to over $250,000 plus or minus. Most of it depends which school you go to and if you live on campus or not. It took me about 8 years before I saw the license of Doctor of Chiropractic on the wall in my office.

About 4 years of undergraduate studies, and almost 4 years of chiropractic school education. The verdict was over $100,000 in cost and that does not include undergraduate studies. These numbers were not this high before the birth of student loans.

Recently spoke to a 67 year old gentleman who is a retiring Chiropractor. He told me that back in days Student Loans did not exist. You pay out of your pocket for tuition and that was the end of the story. The cost was about $500 a quarter. Ten years ago I was paying over $5500 a quarter. Don’t really want to know what it is now.

One must understand that in order for a Chiropractor, Medical Doctor, Dentist or any other medical care provider to recoup the cost of Education process, one must be charging insurance companies for the services. This is a never ending process that can not be stopped unless the cost of education will significantly go down and health care will be free. That is communism and something I escaped 20 years ago and despised it all my life. Free does not necessarily means good. It is a human nature for an individual to excel at certain fields. People will always look for a better medical service around the block. Medical Care is just like everything else has become a business and each Hospital and private clinic treats it as one. The fuel for a medical facility is the amount of patients an institution is seeing and the type of Coverage an individual has. This is just my personal opinion and something that I have been observing for the past ten years working in a medical field.

What do you think the medical care should be like in the United States?  Feel free to add any information in a comment area.