Patient Safety is Not About Bad Medicine
When friends or family
choose a clinician or hospital, I find that they often try to convince me how
wonderful their choice is. They will
tell me that the doctor is great or the hospital is the best. That usually
means that for whatever the reason, the patient and the patient’s family are
happy with their choice. Whether it’s
bedside manner, a gentle personality or a clinician who has a large practice of
patients who work in healthcare, the choice is personal and meets the needs of
the patient. Choosing a medical team is
a personal choice and I don’t need to be convinced as to why someone chooses their
team. I too choose my team for what may
be important to me, not others.
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| SILOS |
Patient safety is not always
about good or bad medical care. Even in
a hospital where everyone is treated like a special guest and patient centered
care is apparent “things” can go wrong.
A nurse who is rushed or distracted may forget to wash her hands, pick
up the wrong medication or forget to check the patient’s identification. Mix ups, miscommunication or human error can
happen in the best facilities and by the most experienced medical professionals. The reasons how errors or unplanned outcomes
may happen is not about incompetence. Maybe
in the “better” hospitals errors may happen less. Maybe when choosing a physician who comes
well recommended the outcomes may be better but a medical team is made up by
many more people than one clinician. It
is made up of teams, working within systems where many things can go
wrong. My role is to educate the public
and break down those silos (a term used to describe a business that lacks team work) to keep the patient and family aware how something might
go wrong and be part of the medical team – that prevents anything from going
wrong.
