Doctors catch errors in own medical records; experts say patients should check too

How much do we trust our physicians to record our medical histories?  It seems that perhaps we should be checking our medical records as closely as we check out credit history.

Errors can creep into medical charts in various ways. Doctors are often under time pressure and may find themselves taking shortcuts or not fully listening to a patient's problems. Others rely on their memory to update their patients' files at the end of the day. Other mistakes can arise from illegible handwriting or coding problems."  Read more here...

Provided by: The Canadian Press
Written by: Alicia Chang, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 21st, 2007

 

Consider the consequences of recording an inaccurate diagnosis or the wrong medication.  In cases of emergency medical response these errors can be life threatening.  Even in cases of impaired diligence during illness or because of age, the repercussions of taking the wrong medication can be dire. 

"McDonald's has a better record of what they've served all their customers than we have of our patients' medical histories," says Isaac Kohane, a Harvard University medical informatics specialist and endocrinologist ("Paperless Medicine", MIT Technology Review, April 2003). When pondering this, remember the following facts:

•  $17-29B spent each year in medical mistakes in hospitals across the US (Institute of Medicine Report, “To Err is Human”, 2000)
• The WHO estimates that 1 in 10 patients receiving hospital care will experience some form of unintended harm  (PRNewswire, May 21^st, 2007 “American Medical Informatics Association Leaders Shaping the Future of Biomedical and Heath Informatics”
•  About 98.000 people die every year in the hospitals in the USA due to medical errors (1997 statistics)

 

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