When you see your primary doctor or go to the hospital, you expect to receive excellent care. Unfortunately, medical professionals may fail to properly treat you. Your health care provider may even harm you, or worse. In fact, according to USA Today, preventable errors result in 200,000 deaths every year.
There are certain kinds of harmful mistakes that doctors and nurses make more often than others. Here are some common examples of errors made by health care professionals.
Medication mistakes
Errors relating to medication may happen in many ways, including the following:
- A doctor prescribing the wrong medication
- A doctor prescribing a medication to treat a condition that is misdiagnosed
- A doctor writing the wrong dosage for the prescription
- A nurse administering the wrong amount of a prescription
- A piece of equipment, such as an IV pump or defibrillator, malfunctioning
The Institute of Medicine claims that medication errors hurt approximately 1.5 million individuals yearly.
Childbirth negligence
If you or someone you know gives birth, you want everything to go as smoothly as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes childbirth takes a turn for the worse due to doctor or nurse negligence. Some childbirth mistakes include the following:
- Giving too much oxygen
- Failing to order a C-section when necessary
- Incompetently using forceps
- Failing to identify a birth defect
These negligent actions may cause the baby to have fractures, cerebral palsy or nerve damage.
Diagnosis errors
You expect your doctor to give you a proper diagnosis of any medical condition. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, doctors diagnose the wrong condition, fail to diagnose a condition or simply delay diagnosing. If you have a serious illness or disease, this may have deadly effects. Your condition may get worse because of a mistake made during the diagnosis.
While most health care providers are competent and have good intentions, things can go wrong quickly when even simple errors occur.