Gray Ritter Graham Blog

Being a nurse is a demanding job, usually held by people with a deep and sincere desire to help others.  The excessive demands can lead to palpable stress.  Unfortunately, the stress can be counterproductive in their call to care for patients by causing nurses to make serious medical errors.

A study published in October in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine looked at this issue and found a direct correlation between burned-out nurses and medical mistakes.  Researchers conducted surveys with 1,790 nurses in the United States to not only identify the state of nurses’ ...

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 90 Americans die each day from overdosing on opioids. What role do medical errors play in today’s growing abuse of opioids?

These powerful painkillers are highly addictive. A one-time dosage has the potential to lead to lifelong misuse. That makes their prudent role in pain treatment so vital.  An opioid prescription error can be just as deadly as other types of serious medical mistakes, like misdiagnosis or errors during surgery.

Because opioids are so addictive, the common practice is to limit their prescription. The Centers of ...

If you have been a victim of a medical error, you’re not alone.  A new survey reports that two out of every 10 Americans have suffered an error in medical treatment.  And most of the victims weren’t told of the mistake by their caregivers.

Just over 2,500 people were surveyed earlier this year in a patient safety study conducted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement/National Patient Safety Foundation and a research group at the University of Chicago.  The effort was designed to measure the public’s perception of patient safety in the United States as well as document personal ...

The number of U.S. cases of sepsis, a gravely serious infection, has been relatively flat over recent years.  Unfortunately, the number of people in this country killed by this preventable infection is growing.

As many as 1 million Americans are hospitalized for sepsis and at least 210,000 die from sepsis each year, according to estimates.  Sepsis is an infection of the blood that attacks tissues and organs.  It is almost always life-threatening.

Sepsis Accounts for 15 Percent of Hospital Patient Deaths

According to a new study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, sepsis ...

How much a patient weighs, or more importantly, how a patient is weighed may play a role in serious medical errors made in hospitals.

In the United States, the standard measure of weight is pounds.  However, for U.S. healthcare the metric system is the preferred standard.  Problems occur and patients may suffer great harm – even death – when this standard is not followed.

This is especially important in a hospital’s emergency room, when situations often dictate fast, accurate decisions.

40 Percent of Medication Errors are Wrong Dosage

Last year, the Emergency Nurses Association ...

Most of the time, experience really matters.  According to a new study, no more so than when it comes to avoiding serious surgical errors.

Researchers at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota recently published the findings of their study, which examined 10 years’ worth of medical malpractice cases.  More specifically, these medical malpractice lawsuits involved surgical residents – new physicians training to become surgeons.

The study’s 87 surgeries involving interns or residents were performed between 2005 and 2015.  All included some sort of serious error that led to a ...

Among the many types of catastrophic medical mistakes that occur, surgical errors can be the most dire.

Every surgery poses risks to a certain degree.  But there are mistakes in surgery that should never occur.  These “never events” include:

·         Wrong site surgery

·         Operating on the wrong patient

·         Performing the wrong procedure on a patient

A study published in JAMA Surgery estimated that as many as 2,700 wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient surgical errors occur each year.  The authors note that such surgical mistakes probably are underreported.  This is a claim bolstered ...

If you are admitted to a hospital for serious medical treatment, the doctor who knows you best may never see you.  Chances are your hospital care will be directed by a relatively new type of doctor called a hospitalist.

What are hospitalists, and do they endanger patient care in hospitals?

What is a Hospitalist?

It’s been estimated that today there are 50,000 hospitalists, making them the largest specialty group of internal medicine physicians.  Their rise began about 20 years ago. Rather than focus on one type of medical condition, hospitalists are trained in how hospitals in general ...

Earlier this year the World Health Organization announced a new effort to cut medication errors in half in five years.  It seems like an ambitious goal.  But in reality it may not be, as practically all serious drug errors are preventable.

The focus of WHO’s efforts to eradicate this serious medical mistake are global, but drug errors are all too frequent and catastrophic in this country. It’s been estimated that one patient dies from a medication error each day in the United States.  This helps explain why it’s also been estimated that medical errors, of which a drug mistake is one ...

In terms of serious, preventable medical errors at hospitals, there is recent good news as well as bad news.

According to a new national survey, the number of two specific types of hospital-acquired patient harm – pressure ulcers and fall-related injuries – has decreased over the last four years.  The bad news from the survey is that only about a third of the nation’s hospitals have taken steps to prevent both of these medical errors.

The Leapfrog Group is a not-for-group that focuses on improving the quality of U.S. healthcare.  It just recently issued a new report on the two ...

Those of us who have cars that need servicing don’t always take them to a manufacturer’s dealership.  Concern that dealers are more expensive than independent repair shops is a common reason car owners do this.

But what about medical devices that need servicing?  Should hospitals and other healthcare facilities turn to non-manufacturers for repairs in order to protect their bottom lines?

The Food and Drug Administration regulates medical devices in the United States.  The FDA not only approves medical devices but also oversees their repair.  However, the agency’s protections ...

If you had to give your hospital a patient safety grade after a stay by you or a family member, what grade would that be?  According to a new rating effort, most Missouri hospitals would only grade a “C” for keeping their patients safe from preventable medical errors.

A nonprofit organization that’s focused on patient safety called The Leapfrog Group annually grades hospitals across the country.  The grades follow the typical school system, ranging from “A” to “F.”

Leapfrog recently published its Spring 2017 grades.  Compared to all states, Missouri ranked 20th, with just ...

Do hospitals listen when parents report their concerns over their children’s medical treatment?  And do they document these family concerns?

JAMA Pediatrics recently reported the findings of a survey that compared the rates of family-reported medical errors to how often healthcare providers reported them and how often hospitals noted the incidents.

Researchers surveyed the parents of about 700 hospital patients who were 17-years old and younger.  They also surveyed the caregivers of the patients as well as reviewed hospital incident reports.  Four pediatric care facilities ...

The increasingly negative attitudes doctors hold today about their work could be affecting patient safety, according to a new survey.

Medscape, a medical issues website, recently published the findings of its Medscape Lifestyle Report, which annually investigates physicians’ work happiness.  This latest survey included 14,000 doctors, a group that encompassed more than 30 specialties.

More than Half of Physicians Reported Work Unhappiness

Over half – 51 percent – reported being burned out, which the survey authors define as a loss of enthusiasm, cynicism, and low ...

Defective medical devices can seriously injure patients.  It’s been recently documented that a type of medical device used regularly and repeatedly in hospitals may not receive adequate cleaning, and therefore may pose grave dangers as well.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the federal agency responsible for the safety of medical devices used throughout the country.  When a serious defect in a medical device becomes known, the FDA can issue a recall to minimize the harm.

According to the FDA, a defective medical device recall doesn’t always mean the device is no longer to be ...

Poor communications between healthcare providers account for about seven out of every 10 patient deaths caused by a mistake in medical care.

This statistic is attributed to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as part of the findings of a study released last month on how to prevent medical communication errors.  The study was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research-Human Factor.

Types of Miscommunication That Can Harm Patients

This study looked at communications during patient handoffs in hospitals – the ending of one care giver shift and the beginning ...

Nurses have a difficult job.  The work they do – providing medical care – is challenging enough.  Throw in high daily workload volumes and it’s understandable just how demanding a role nurses endure.

But that’s not to excuse the preventable mistakes in patient care they make, such as medication errors, because patients can suffer real and irreparable harm from them.

Mistakes in dispensing medications are a leading type of medical error.  Some estimates link as many as 7,000 patient deaths each year to a drug error.  Medication mistakes by nurses are of particular concern as nurses ...