Every year 44 to 98 thousand Americans die from medical errors in our hospitals. There are many causes of this problem. All of us should help reduce medical errors.
The best way of reducing medical errors is for all of us to study and learn how we can help to protect ourselves from being the victim of an error.
There are thousands of solutions. Here is one of them.
Everytime you receive a prescription from your clinician make sure you can read it. If it is handwritten please request that the prescription be change to a printed one so your pharmacist can fill it correctly. There are about 7,000 patients in our hospitals who die because of medication problems.
In this section of our website, we will write about other ways and methods to help reduce medical errors.
Leo Leonidas, MD, FAAP, Bangor, Maine