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Wrongful Death by Medical Errors: Prevention is Better than Cure
As aggressively provoking title suggests, the consequences of wrongful death due to medical error or medical malpractice will be looked at from a considerably different angle as compared to the other contributions on this topic lying on the world wild web.
Ninety-Eight Thousand (98,000) people die every year from preventable medical errors according to the American Medical Association. This is a shocking fact that the medical errors are the third leading cause of death in United States of America behind heart disease and cancer. Twice as many people die of medical malpractice errors as die in auto accidents each year.
Each time we go to a doctor or a medical practitioner in a hospital, we more or less expect to receive reasonable care. At the very least, we think that our health care providers will offer us with care that won't harm us. But the brutal fact is that, sometimes medical professionals make very serious mistakes that do cause a fatal and wrongful death to a human life.
Many of us has already heard the horror stories of medical practice like people getting dangerous infections in hospitals, losing the wrong limb in surgery, wrongful anesthesia and many more. But when medical malpractice results in death, it is considered a "wrongful death" in the legal field.
Wrongful death due to medical malpractice or medical error is a wide topic. There are people who think that this happens only to those who are going through surgeries or serious medical procedures. Sadly, wrongful deaths occur due to medical errors of different assortment. These deaths happen in hospitals during surgeries or even in minor injuries that are treated in the emergency room. Blunder in the pharmacy can result in a patient taking medications they have an allergy to, or are deadly in combination with another medicine. Carelessness in nursing homes is on the rise and can result in the wrongful death of a patient.
After an extensive insight about the topic, I would like to share some of the proven tips which can help anyone in the whole world to prevent themselves from the wrongful death by medical errors. This can help in minimizing the distress of losing loved ones and years of pain and suffering will be experienced by families.
8 Things to Prevent from a Wrongful Death Due To Medical Error
These steps are briefly elaborated to make you avoid medical errors, in general. So what can you do;
1. Be involved during your health care treatment; always take part in making decisions that affect your health and safety. A patient based research shows that those who are being active in health care treatments leads to the better results.
2. Inform your doctor about your medications; it is extremely important for a patient to ensure that the doctor knows about all medications you are taking, including herbal medications, vitamins, and over-the-counter drugs.
3. Check yourself out for allergies or adverse reactions you have had to certain medications; Make sure your doctor knows about it. This will be helpful in evade prescription errors and wrong medication.
4. Read your prescription in front of your doctor; you must ensure that you read the prescription given to you and that you understand it. Think about it: if you can't read your doctor's handwriting, there is a good chance, your pharmacist may not be able to read it either.
6. Ask your doctor or pharmacist, how to take your medication; Read carefully from the label on your medication before you leave your doctor's office or the pharmacy and ask them if you don’t understand to take the medication.
7. Primary source verification and medical license verification of a doctor is important; to know the fact that your doctor is genuine and licensed to treat your illness measures. You can use different online portals to search for this information.
8. Prefer to go in Joint commission international accredited hospitals; because this organization has the best quality, standardization and accreditation policies regarding health care and safety, ensuring the patients safety from medical malpractice and wrongful death.
Conclusion
2 Point Agenda to Implement
1. Firstly, we need to focus on not only lowering health care costs but improving health care delivery, reducing medical error and reducing the number of innocent victims of severe injury and wrongful death from medical malpractice and medical error.
2. Secondly, we need to keep records of such wrongful deaths caused by the medical negligence and errors by getting copies of the decedent's medical records and the autopsy report, if there is one. We then consult with our attorney-physician and with other medical specialists to determine whether the death was caused by medical negligence. This may help in determining more insight information and will be fruitful in delineating the prospective medical errors.
We know that we cannot replace the loss felt by the family of one who has died due to negligent medical care. But we can, however, answer their questions and guide them through the process which can save thousands of lives suffering from wrongful death each year across the globe.
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Research Analyst at Q2 Group. Q2 is specialized in medical credentialing, primary source verification, and medical license verification according to the standards of joint commission international. For more about wrongful death cases, please visit http://medicallicenseverification.com.
Ninety-Eight Thousand (98,000) people die every year from preventable medical errors according to the American Medical Association. This is a shocking fact that the medical errors are the third leading cause of death in United States of America behind heart disease and cancer. Twice as many people die of medical malpractice errors as die in auto accidents each year.
Each time we go to a doctor or a medical practitioner in a hospital, we more or less expect to receive reasonable care. At the very least, we think that our health care providers will offer us with care that won't harm us. But the brutal fact is that, sometimes medical professionals make very serious mistakes that do cause a fatal and wrongful death to a human life.
Many of us has already heard the horror stories of medical practice like people getting dangerous infections in hospitals, losing the wrong limb in surgery, wrongful anesthesia and many more. But when medical malpractice results in death, it is considered a "wrongful death" in the legal field.
Wrongful death due to medical malpractice or medical error is a wide topic. There are people who think that this happens only to those who are going through surgeries or serious medical procedures. Sadly, wrongful deaths occur due to medical errors of different assortment. These deaths happen in hospitals during surgeries or even in minor injuries that are treated in the emergency room. Blunder in the pharmacy can result in a patient taking medications they have an allergy to, or are deadly in combination with another medicine. Carelessness in nursing homes is on the rise and can result in the wrongful death of a patient.
After an extensive insight about the topic, I would like to share some of the proven tips which can help anyone in the whole world to prevent themselves from the wrongful death by medical errors. This can help in minimizing the distress of losing loved ones and years of pain and suffering will be experienced by families.
8 Things to Prevent from a Wrongful Death Due To Medical Error
These steps are briefly elaborated to make you avoid medical errors, in general. So what can you do;
1. Be involved during your health care treatment; always take part in making decisions that affect your health and safety. A patient based research shows that those who are being active in health care treatments leads to the better results.
2. Inform your doctor about your medications; it is extremely important for a patient to ensure that the doctor knows about all medications you are taking, including herbal medications, vitamins, and over-the-counter drugs.
3. Check yourself out for allergies or adverse reactions you have had to certain medications; Make sure your doctor knows about it. This will be helpful in evade prescription errors and wrong medication.
4. Read your prescription in front of your doctor; you must ensure that you read the prescription given to you and that you understand it. Think about it: if you can't read your doctor's handwriting, there is a good chance, your pharmacist may not be able to read it either.
6. Ask your doctor or pharmacist, how to take your medication; Read carefully from the label on your medication before you leave your doctor's office or the pharmacy and ask them if you don’t understand to take the medication.
7. Primary source verification and medical license verification of a doctor is important; to know the fact that your doctor is genuine and licensed to treat your illness measures. You can use different online portals to search for this information.
8. Prefer to go in Joint commission international accredited hospitals; because this organization has the best quality, standardization and accreditation policies regarding health care and safety, ensuring the patients safety from medical malpractice and wrongful death.
Conclusion
2 Point Agenda to Implement
1. Firstly, we need to focus on not only lowering health care costs but improving health care delivery, reducing medical error and reducing the number of innocent victims of severe injury and wrongful death from medical malpractice and medical error.
2. Secondly, we need to keep records of such wrongful deaths caused by the medical negligence and errors by getting copies of the decedent's medical records and the autopsy report, if there is one. We then consult with our attorney-physician and with other medical specialists to determine whether the death was caused by medical negligence. This may help in determining more insight information and will be fruitful in delineating the prospective medical errors.
We know that we cannot replace the loss felt by the family of one who has died due to negligent medical care. But we can, however, answer their questions and guide them through the process which can save thousands of lives suffering from wrongful death each year across the globe.
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Research Analyst at Q2 Group. Q2 is specialized in medical credentialing, primary source verification, and medical license verification according to the standards of joint commission international. For more about wrongful death cases, please visit http://medicallicenseverification.com.
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