The old adage, “ignorance is bliss,” is so true in many instances. Often we would rather not know how many calories are in that cookie or the negative effects of your daily caffeine dose. However, when it comes to health care, patients want to know what is going on. Unfortunately, some doctors and hospitals are keeping secrets from patients that could impact their health.
Doctors and medical staff are required to abide by a certain standard of care when treating patients. That standard of care is sometimes breached and causes medication errors, misdiagnoses and surgical errors.
Patients may sometimes know about the mistake, but what if the mistake is covered up or brushed under the rug? Aside from talking to a New York surgical error attorney about the possibility of filing a malpractice lawsuit, there are additional ways that New Yorkers can protect themselves from malpractice or discover these hidden truths.
Both nurses and doctors can mess up medications, either by prescribing the wrong dose or the wrong drug entirely. Ninety-eight percent of the time these mistakes are hidden from patients. Patients can do their own due diligence by requesting the doctor to write down each medication prescribed, and the reason for the prescription, in other words, the purpose of the medicine.
Also, medical records are not confidential from yourself. Ask to see records, medication errors and surgeons errors might be flagged with certain code words like “near miss” or “risk management.”
Opt for hospitals that nurses prefer. When hospitals are overstaffed and nurses are overworked, medical care quality goes down, and risk goes up. Magnet hospitals are facilities that receive good grades from nurses in areas of quality of care, good work environment and education. Surgical patients in these hospitals are less like to die at a rate of 14 percent.
Although the ultimate burden falls on the health care facility and its staff, there are little things that patients can do to protect their health. Nonetheless, if these steps fail, the medical negligence victim may need to file a malpractice lawsuit.
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Surgical errors hidden from patients
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Jay W. Dankner
JAY W. DANKNER was born, raised and educated in Brooklyn, New York. After graduation from law school in 1973, he joined the firm of the legendary, Harry H, Lipsig, under whose tutelage he learned the intricacies of civil litigation and trials. He tried and won his first case against General Motors in a case involving a design defect within weeks after his admission. Thereafter, he focused his attention on the emerging and developing field of law known as products liability litigation.
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