A Tough Pill to Swallow

1000 people will die today due to preventable medical errors.

When I read that statistic on multiple websites and in many publications, it makes my head spin and heart break.  1000 people.  Not just today...EVERY SINGLE DAY. 1000 people will die on this day due to preventable medical errors. 

Unfortunately, I believe that statement is most likely accurate.

As my husband spent many long years on a medical journey to a heart transplant, I was overwhelmed and dumbfounded by the conflicting information that we received along the way. In my non-medical opinion, I found way too many medical Chiefs and only one Indian.

When we started our journey many years ago, my husband was under the care of Dr. Allen Soffer, Cardiologist.  Dr. Soffer would visit the hospital each morning and evening.  Hospital staff would defer to Dr. Soffer.  They would wait for his direction and we would wait to talk to him.  We knew who was in charge.  And, after years as his patient, Dr. Soffer knew us.  We had complete confidence in Dr. Soffer and the decisions that he made. Then we saw, and experienced, a cosmic shift in healthcare.  Now at hospital and in healthcare settings, we have Hospitalists, Interns, Fellows, Nurse Practitioners, Physician’s Assistants, nurses, technicians, aides...and a partridge in a pear tree.  What you do not have is the one doctor who knows you.   

When primary physicians visited their patients in the hospital, did we have 1000 people dying each day due to preventable medical errors?

As a caregiver sitting next to the patient in the bed, you see a revolving door of people coming in the room. With each person comes a new set of directions, advice, medications, course of treatment.  It is absolutely mind-numbing and quite frankly - astonishing.  You can have two people in the same hour visit giving completely different information/opinions.  Here is one very small, but recent, example...  

My dad was just released from Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur.  Just prior to leaving, a white coat stopped in. I am unsure of her title/position/rank, but she said, ‘We have not given you your antibiotic this morning. This evening take two doses and then tomorrow go back to one in the morning and one in the evening.’  Thirty minutes later, the nurse came in to release my dad... ‘This evening you will need to take one dose...’ I said, ‘The woman that was just here, said to take two antibiotics doses this evening...’  Her reply, ‘Okay, I guess do what she said.’  (’Okay, I guess do what she said’... That does not leave much confidence with the patient or the caregiver.  And, while this example may not seem significant, it is actually extremely important.  My dad has chronic kidney disease.  We have heard for months how hard antibiotics are on his system.  We want to be confident that we are doing what his kidney specialist would recommend.)  

That comes back to 1000 people dying each day and my chief complaint...As an ‘Indian,’ we need one Chief in charge.

Terri McEachern, 2017