Watched the first segment of the PBS broadcast program Remaking American Medicine: Health Care for the 21st Century, entitled "Silent Killer." For those of you who might have missed it, it was a moving and inspiring documentary. I am bit bewildered as to why it was broadcast at 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon. Perhaps KCTS had no control over that but it is a program that deserves a primetime time slot and the possibility of more viewers.
According to the program, as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospital each year due to medical errors. Medical errors kill as many people each year as breast cancer, AIDS and car accidents.
The focus of this first program was the initiatives around patient safety that were result of the death of a young girl and how her parents, particularly her mother, saw a way of making a difference for other patients. The Kings' daughter was only days away from release from the renowned John Hopkins Hospital Children's Center when she died of dehydration. Originally, she had scalded herself in the bathtub and was being treated for burns. Despite her parents' concerns that she didn't look well and she was constantly thirsty, staff at the hospital claimed she was fine.
One of the problems that came to light out of this young girl's death is the hierarchical, top down structure of hospitals in which patients and their families are on the bottom rungs. There was a lack of communication between doctors and nurses and a failure to take the concerns of the parents seriously. This last point is something my previous posting raised.
With the money they received from the hospital for the loss of their daughter, the Kings set up a foundation to fund initiatives that improved patient safety. As a result of the policies put in place at John Hopkins, many lives have been saved. Sorrel King travels around the country speaking to health care providers, telling the story of her daughter's death and inspiring providers and hospitals to do things differently. Because of her work, other hospitals have implemented policies to enhance patient safety.
While I expected this program to be an exposé on the failings of the American medical system, it was in fact a powerful illustration of people's ability to make a difference.
More information about RAM can be found at their website and information about the program series at the PBS website.
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2 comments:
David
I'm really glad you watched the first in the series. Will you watch the others, too?
A medical drug error in Edmonton recently led to a patient's death. I wonder if information could have helped there?
Dean
Hi AHL: The whole medical mistakes issue (and the tragic aftermaths) rings all too true. I had two immidiate family members who were ill and hospitalized earlier this year. I can't even remember how many times they attempted to give the wrong drugs (or wrong dosage) or did not give some therapy in the correct manner, etc., not to mention the difficulty in getting the physicians doing their rounds to sit still for 30 seconds while some issue was addressed. There is an excellent (and scary) article in Time magazine (May 1, 2006 Vol. 167 No. 18) entitled "Q: What Scares Doctors? A: Being the Patient." Well worth a read...of course that alone won't fix the system but it is good to be informed.
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