healthscare: healthcare is an imperfect practice

Perhaps more than any other profession, healthcare practitioners give of themselves for the benefit of the greater public.  Mistakes are inevitable any time you place humans in complex systems with many moving parts, heavy workloads and the necessity for great informational recall. 

Still, the number and frequency of medical mistakes cannot be overstated or harped on enough.  Here is a brief synopsis of statistics on the commonality of medical mistakes.

(On the flip-side, Forbes.com offers a slideshow of their picks for the safest hospitals in the U.S.)

What likely adds to this predicament is the lack of reporting, and thus accountability, when mistakes are made…

I would add a word of caution about any list of “safe” hospitals or any type of healthcare ranking for that matter. The drive toward this type of system or report cards for physicians may have an unintended consequence of cherry picking. Physicians will not want to take on the risky, and most needy, patients. Hospitals will turf the care of the same patients toward county hospitals as well.

Comment by Country Doc September 13, 2008 @ 4:48 pm

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