| As we Americans mourn the anniversary of 9/11 | | | | you're in a hospital getting drugs pumped |
| and the 2,973 people who were murdered on | | | | into your body at least one medication error |
| that day 5 years ago, an even more insidious | | | | will occur.** Startling, isn't it? |
| homeland terror is scourging our nation. | | | | |
| Every year in this country, more than 98,000* | | | | Americans must be vigilant healthcare |
| people die from an attack taking place in our | | | | consumers. Our lives depend on it. |
| local hospitals. This senseless terror is | | | | Individuals need to research their own |
| caused by medical negligence. | | | | illness, be persistent in seeking specialists |
| | | | and insist that a friend or relative is |
| The silent epidemic goes unnoticed because | | | | always at their bedside. They should make |
| its perpetrators are not wearing kefiyahs and | | | | sure their healthcare provider is not |
| carrying AK-47s. Instead they wear white lab | | | | prescribing a drug or recommending a medical |
| coats, carry stethoscopes and masquerade as | | | | device based on incentives from the |
| medical professionals. The 268 deaths they | | | | manufacturer. When hospital patients suspect |
| cause each and every day occur individually | | | | something is wrong with their treatment, they |
| in thousands of hospitals, as opposed to the | | | | should go up the chain of command all the way |
| 2,973 deaths from that one horrific mass | | | | to the chief of staff, and if that doesn't |
| attack. And the medical community has | | | | work, then to risk management. |
| succeeded in keeping its dirty secret out of | | | | |
| the daily headlines. Healthcare providers do | | | | It's time to demand more accountability from |
| not inform patients or their families about | | | | our healthcare providers. Just as we demand |
| medical errors, even when the result is | | | | that our armed forces keep the country safe |
| death. | | | | from terrorist attacks, we need to also |
| | | | demand that our healthcare industry police |
| As a registered nurse, I've worked on the | | | | itself and practice competently. |
| front line witnessing this atrocity and the | | | | |
| devastation it causes victims and their | | | | * To Err is Human; Building a Safer Health |
| families. As an attorney and legal nurse | | | | System, Institute of Medicine, National |
| consulting educator, I'm acutely aware of the | | | | Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1999. |
| billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare | | | | |
| expense to the American public. It frightens | | | | ** Preventing Medication Errors, Institute of |
| me how easily the average person submits to a | | | | Medicine, National Academy Press: Washington, |
| doctor's or nurse's decision without | | | | DC, July 21, 2006. |
| question, when you consider that for each day | | | | |