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Prelude to the medical error case study
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Prelude to the medical error case study
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Is it Grey’s Anatomy or Real Life? Everyone who has seen Grey’s Anatomy knows all the problems and struggles the characters go through with each episode they watch; they know how much Meredith Grey struggles with her mommy and daddy issues which distract her at work and led her to become emotional involved or make an error with a patient. Everyone has seen the characters on the show have committed at least one mistake that led to the death of a patient or a near to death experience. From the time Callie Torres, an orthopedic surgeon, left a sponge inside of a patient and closed him up to the time George O’Malley, a surgical resident, who nearly killed a patient. But what most viewers who watch Grey’s Anatomy do not fully comprehend is that this is not just in a drama but this is in real life—all doctors make mistakes. In “When Doctors Make Mistakes,” Atul Gawande flatly states that “all doctors make terrible mistakes” (657). In doing so he explains certain failures and errors that doctors commit that led to situations that in danger patients. Gawande first mentions a study that found “…nearly …show more content…
He said, “Studies of specific types of error, too, have found that repeat offenders are not the problem. The fact is that virtually everyone who cares for hospital patients will make serious mistakes, and even commit acts of negligence, every year. For this reason, doctors are seldom outraged when the press reports yet another medical horror story. They usually have a different reaction: This could be me. The important question isn’t how to keep bad physicians from harming patients; it’s how to keep good physicians from harming patients” (658). Like Gawande asked—how do you keep good physicians from harming patients? Even the best of doctors and surgeons manage to make mistakes that led to being sued or even worst—they get to experience the death of their
In her personal essay, Dr. Grant writes that she learned that most cases involving her patients should not be only handled from a doctor’s point of view but also from personal experience that can help her relate to each patient regardless of their background; Dr. Grant was taught this lesson when she came face to face with a unique patient. Throughout her essay, Dr. Grant writes about how she came to contact with a patient she had nicknamed Mr. G. According to Dr. Grant, “Mr. G is the personification of the irate, belligerent patient that you always dread dealing with because he is usually implacable” (181). It is evident that Dr. Grant lets her position as a doctor greatly impact her judgement placed on her patients, this is supported as she nicknamed the current patient Mr.G . To deal with Mr. G, Dr. Grant resorts to using all the skills she
Chasing Zero is a documentary which was meant to both educate the viewer on the prevalence of medical harm as well as to enlighten both the public and health care providers on the preventability of these events (Discovery, 2010). The documentary expounded on the fact each year more people die each year from a preventable medical error than die due to breast cancer, motor vehicle accidents or AIDS (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Medical harm can result from adverse drug events, surgical injuries, wrong-site surgery, suicides, restraint-related injuries, falls, burns, pressure ulcers and mistaken patient identities (Institute of Medicine, 1999). Incidences of medical error have been reported in the media for many years. The most startling revelation in the documentary is how common medical errors are and how preventable they are.
In the essay “When Doctors Make Mistakes” written by Atul Gawande, he writes a first-hand account of mistakes made by himself and his colleagues. The essay is divided into five parts, each named to the narrative and emotions of the story he would tell. In each story he tells, he uses such vivid language that we as readers feel as if we are one of his colleagues. Each section has its own importance to the whole point he was trying to get across, ““All doctors make terrible mistakes” (657).
Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate and produce open-minded reasoning, and is very important for daily life. A critical thinking failure is the inability to have fair reasoning, therefore a person would be biased and skeptical. Alex Karev, in the hit ABC show Grey’s Anatomy, displays a critical thinking failure because of how close-minded he may be in certain situations. In comparison with Meredith Grey, Karev was neglected as a child and brought up with violence. This played a significant role in his cognitive development, which impacted his critical thinking skills and lead to poor reasoning.
Dr. Gawande emphasizes the value of making mistakes, and how it is a core component of his daily life as a physician. His mistakes are dependent on the “good choices or bad choices” he makes, and regardless of the result that occurs, he learns more about himself as a physician, and more about his connection with patients (215). Critic Joan Smith of The Guardian newspaper mentions that although his various stories about “terrifying” mistakes that doctors make induce fear and a sense of squeamishness within the reader, it is the “emphasis that human beings are not machines” that is “oddly reassuring” (Smith). For example, in the essay, “When Doctors Make Mistakes”, Gawande is standing over his patient Louise Williams, viewing her “lips blue, her throat swollen, bloody, and suddenly closed” (73).
Meredith Grey, a main character in the television show, Grey’s Anatomy once said, "Surgeons are control freaks. With a scalpel in your hand, you feel unstoppable. There's no fear, there's no pain. You're 10 feet tall and bulletproof.” Dr. Grey said this in the third episode, first season of the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. The ABC series, created by Shonda Rhimes, first aired in 2005, and is in its tenth season, with new episodes on Thursday nights at 9/8 central. The series averaged 16.4 million viewers throughout its first 10 seasons, peaking at 25.41million viewers in the third season. (U.S.) The series concerns several surgical interns and their journey to becoming full-blown surgeons. In the average show, the viewer sees several complicated, unordinary medical cases in which the doctors attempt to save the patients life. The cases are always very dramatic which makes for a great television show. Often times the medical cases will have something to do with the doctors’ personal lives, which are just as dramatic. These connections make the situations seem so real, and make viewer believe that their doctor is just like the one that he or she sees on TV. This blur between what the viewer sees on TV, and his or her real life experiences, is backed up by the Cultivation Theory. (Quick) In the healthcare world, a distortion of reality caused by the viewing of Grey’s Anatomy, has an overall positive impact of real-life patient satisfaction with their real world doctors.
Grey initially enters the medical field as a surgical intern and in further episodes, she eventually becomes the head of general surgery due to her outstanding abilities and work ethic. By documenting this rise from an entry level position to a prestigious post within medicine, Grey’s Anatomy promotes a positive image of ambitious and committed women who can advance to high level promotions that would stereotypically be held by men. Along with this idea of female success, the women in the show are often shown in the same scrubs as men of the same position, eliminating the stereotype of the highly sexualized female appearing in mainstream culture. As a character, Dr. Grey is a social, professional, and dependable surgeon who is able to consistently demonstrate her talents as a surgeon throughout the show. In episode seventeen of the second season of Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Grey shows an extreme dedication to her occupation and patients when she risks her life to remove a bomb from a patient in order to treat the patient’s bleeding. By putting herself in a position where she saved both her patient and willingly removed a bomb, Dr. Grey displays a high level of compassion, courage, and intelligence that puts her well above the stereotypical idea of a competent male doctor within the medical field. In this light, the characterization of Dr. Grey’s character on Grey’s Anatomy promotes the image of a successful, dependable, and non-sexualized female doctor in
“You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is like a farmer create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish”( Ken Robinson). When people watch television they do not get to the deeper meaning of each character. Everyone in life has its own way of developing themselves. In the tv series Grey’s Anatomy characters grow in different ways. In the serie characters have an unique way to show themselves. Two of the main characters Dr. Meredith Grey and Dr. Weeber are similar, but yet different at the same time. In the Tv show they connect with each other but there is something that makes them different. Both characters of the Tv show Grey’s anatomy can be identified by their stage in life. Due to that they have differences that make them stand out like Dr. Grey has a bigger sense of intimacy while being in her stage of early adulthood. Dr. Weeber on the other hand is in middle adulthood which makes him have a
When coming home at night after a long day of work, all I want to do is relax and take my mind off of work. There is no better way to forget about my drama filed life than to watch a show full of drama. By watching the secret like of an American teenager you forget about your own problems and worry about the drama in the show. Many dramatic shows are on tv at night time. Generally the time to come home and watch tv. All tv shows should have certain characteristics to be considered excellent.
In the text, Gawande states, “I punctured a patient’s lung, for example-the right lung of a chief of surgery from another hospital, no less-and given the odds, I’m sure such things will happen again.” This shows how fatal errors can occur during a surgical procedure however, it is something that surgical residents have to grow accustomed to since mistakes like this are likely to reoccur. Gawande also mentions that when practicing on a patient, mistakes are bound to happen however, it is a part of learning. In the text, Gawande states, “She let me continue with the next steps, which I bumbled through. I didn’t realize how long and floppy the guide wire was until I pulled the coil of its plastic sleeve, and, putting one end of it into the patient, I very nearly contaminated the other.” This quote proves that although mistakes can happen, it is a part of the learning process. In this specific part, Gawande talks about how he nearly made a severe error however, he was able to learn from his mistake and complete the procedure successfully. This shows how practicing on patients is necessary for the advancement of the medical field. Therefore, although ethical and practical tensions may arise, practicing on patients is needed in order to save the lives of many in the long
Diligence is a virtue. This is a theme Atul Gawande presents to the reader throughout Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. In each story, Gawande provides insight on medical studies he has previously embarked upon. For example, in “The Mop-up” the author tells us about a time when he went to India to observe the efforts to eradicate polio. Gawande explains how he followed a supervisor around and how vaccinations were performed. Additionally, in another chapter he debates on whether physicians should take part in death sentences. Throughout his adventures Gawande provides numerous enriching personal accounts of controversial events and what it is like to be a doctor; each with diligence playing a key part.
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).
Consequently, it can be assumed that doctors might tend to avoid such a confession in order to maintain their image of being a “good doctor” (J.Shahidi). Not being a good doctor may eventually lead to doctor’s loss of business and as a result physicians may tend to hide the truth even if it opposes patient autonomy