Welcome to 2019, a time where the newest epidemic is preventable medical errors. Imagine this: you're in the hospital, and your interdisciplinary health care team (IDT) doesn't get along, and they fail to communicate the best treatment options for you. Now what?
Even though these communication mishaps are often resolved, sometimes, that's not the case. In 2016, Johns Hopkins safety experts found that more than 250,000 deaths per year in the U.S. can be traced back to medical errors. In 2013, chronic respiratory disease killed almost 149,000 people, which ranks medical errors as the third leading cause of death behind cancer and cardiovascular disease. The high number of medical error fatalities shouldn't be related to bad health care providers; they should be related to poor coordination of care.
The problem is that it takes more than one person to communicate effectively to coordinate a patient's plan of care. To provide top-quality medical care, all members of the IDT must provide their expertise from their specialty department. Research has shown that communication must be even more detailed within the IDT when the patient's condition is more severe.
So, how does the IDT communicate? Most frequently, the IDT will communicate through electronic medical records. Electronic medical records are beneficial for staying up to date on the care services provided to your patient; however, there is no face-to-face communication involved in the process. The only guaranteed face-to-face communication that the IDT has occurs during rounds. Unfortunately, rounds can be over too quickly before all information is expressed from each department, or can manifest a competitive and undesirable team culture.
Though these means of communication seem promising at first, something needs to be done to enhance the IDT communication and prevent further medical errors. Perhaps small group communication training should be implemented during new hire orientation, or communication training should be required for undergraduate students in health-focused majors. Unfortunately, if communication does not improve over the next couple of years, more lives will be taken due to poor communication and preventable medical errors.
I really enjoyed your presentation the other day. I can attest to the hierarchical tendencies of doctors, and even nurses to an extent. When I was in my clinical rotations, I always felt like I couldn't speak up during rounds because I was just the "intern". On several occasions, I tried to ask nurses questions but would get pushed aside with an "I don't know" or "Figure it out for yourself." This is very discouraging and proves that better communication is desperately needed in the healthcare setting.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy the amount of trust we place in health care providers, who all too often, identify people by their chart instead of personal interaction. Medical errors is a huge issue that is kept in the dark from society, but even if more light was shed on the topic is there really anything an individual could do to ensure they don’t end up as a casualty? After reading this article it makes me wonder if this is the reasoning that doctors are required to have malpractice insurance. I like your solutions and think that patients and practitioners alike would benefit from communication training.
ReplyDeleteCrazy and scary how preventable these medical errors are! Is there a better method or charting or communication that could be used instead in these medical facilities?
ReplyDeleteThis is SO scary to think about! I have never considered this as something that could be an issue. I like your solutions about communication training in undergrad and in orientation at jobs. Even more, I agree that the only way for doctors and medical teams to ensure their message was expressed the way they attended is for a face-to-face interaction. Thanks for bringing to light such an important but under-discussed issue!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that deaths due to medical errors occurred at this rate. I think you did a great job laying out the problem and providing a solution. I would really love to see how much safer medical care becomes in the future if all medical professions focused on improving interdisciplinary communication!
ReplyDeleteI am still completely floored by both your presentation and now this post! I was in such a state of shock when I heard the numbers you presented. This is such a big problem and I cannot believe more medical facilities are not taking it more seriously. People's whole entire lives are at stake! Thank you for the perspective. This is such a big deal and everyone should hear about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. I would have never thought that communication, or more like the lack of it, could be the cause of deaths. Seeing those numbers, it is incomprehensible to me why improvement on those matters is so slow.
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