Colleagues rarely point out errors on patients [View All]

http://www.dispatch.com/national-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/01/27/20050127-A4-01.html

Not sure if the link will work for you unless you are a subscriber. I'll try to find a link from from the Scripps story.

I think this is interesting, because all this time it's been pounded into peoples heads that the problem with health care is those "wascally" Trial Lawyers. This story kind of blows that all to hell. I'm not doctor bashing, but it appears if this story is accurate,...well then "physician heal thyself".

Lee Bowman
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE


WASHINGTON — Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers seldom challenge a colleague when they see mistakes being made in patient care, a new study found.

Researchers spent more than 10,000 hours observing and interviewing more than 2,000 health workers at 19 hospitals across the country.

Among the stories they heard: a nurse who gave up reminding a colleague to put up safety rails on a child’s bed; a pharmacist who dispensed an inadequate prescription for pain medicine to a patient whose doctor is a "jerk" and gives the pharmacy a hard time; and a nurse who watched a surgical patient die after failing to convince a doctor who intimidated her that the man was in trouble.

Among the other findings were that 84 percent of physicians and 62 percent of nurses and other care providers have seen co-workers repeatedly taking shortcuts that could endanger patients.