Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

OBVIOUSLY you have an ax to grind.  Yes, the patient care in the U.S. is 
dismal.  HOWEVER, the majority of the responsibility lies with insurance 
companies and quite a bit lies at the feet of the patients.

And, NO, lab tests won't put the lie to most of the things patients do and 
don't report.  Besides, if any doctor ran the number of tests necessary to 
rule out all the patient lies, the insurance companies would have fits AND 
the patients would have fits.

I've seen my share of dumbass doctors.  I'm not deluded, but I'm not merrily 
making all the docs out to be the bad guys nor sending on the links that say 
"may have" "could be" etc.  Either use facts or simply put in the subject 
line "personal rant."

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SJC" <indexer AT localnet.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] medical safety in this country


> Lynda wrote:
> > .........Both are the direct responsibility of the patient!
> I guess those are more than compensated by the 80-95% that don't get
> reported as iatrogenic....
> > So, isatrogenic lists are worthless!
> Until your kid is on the butt end of it.......
> > BTW, ALL med errors are reported, period!  Monthly, by all hospitals.
> > Doesn't matter whether or not they result in a death.
> Uhhh, that would be all med errors for which there is an incident
> report, in a facility......which is not all med errors, by any means.
> And the majority of med errors, by far, occur in walk-in and otherwise
> non-hospitalized patients, where the 'official' record-keeping does not
> often come into play.  Furthermore, many go unrecognized by the patient
> and are not reported as med errors to begin with.  If you think all med
> errors are reported you are either being deluded or deluding yourself.
>
> Just as a little example of med errors that escape reporting, recently
> my bloodthinner was changed to Coumadin and the dosage ordered seemed
> high to me.  Since I have had plenty of Coumadin in the past, I
> questioned it but was assured that was the necessary dosage.  Doctor was
> new to me but had a full set of all my old and current records (enough
> that copying the full set was over $20.00) so he could easily see what
> levels of meds I've had in the past.  I took half what was ordered for 4
> days, then since even that seemed like such a high dosage and I had
> numerous new bruises I couldn't account for, had a protime/inr done 3
> days early (my dollar, of course).  So high the lab had called me before
> I got home, left message on machine, "See doctor immediately: your
> protime/inr is dangerously high.  Do not delay".  Doctor furious I had
> lowered dosage on my own and did his share of abusive yelling at my back
> until lab report was faxed in as I was leaving.  No apology.  Reduced
> dosage further, administered vitamin K (for which he tried to charge
> me:  I offered to report him to the state licensing bureau if I had to
> pay for it) and sent me on my way.  So another doctor bites the
> dust......  Always keep your own records, folks.
>
> You think he reported that?  And the lab has no reason to report it.
> If  I had gone to the ER for the vitamin K it might have been reported,
> or might not.  It wasn't their med error.   If they had seen a pattern
> with a particular doctor it would be more likely to have been reported
> but  in my experience in ER the Good Ol' Boy system works for them:
> 'Hey, Bob, we got another one of your bleeders the other day, better
> watch the Coumadin.'.    No, all med errors are not reported, by a long
> shot.   I could cite hundreds of errors that went unreported over the
> years I was working in the field (and since). There are plenty of ways
> around reporting med errors.
>
> Susan Jane, in Maine
>
>
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