Washing hands before touching a patient

The hospital care system has been one of the most trusted institutions in the U.S. But while millions have experienced near-miracles while being treated at hospitals, a million others have found out that hospitals can also be dangerous to their health.

According to a study conducted for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, hospital errors impacts the lives of at least 1.5 million Americans each year, some of them permanently.

Hospitals are complex systems and human errors have high probability of occurring, says an expert in health care delivery systems research. The idea that doctors can be trained to completely and consistently avoid making mistakes is completely false.

And major mistakes do happen. According to the study, up to 100,000 people die each year in U.S. hospitals because of hospital errors that include mix-ups in administering drugs and mishaps in surgery.

Consider the following:

* There is a 20 percent chance that a hospital patient may be given the wrong drug. Deaths from such errors are estimated to be at least on the same level as deaths from car accidents, perhaps even as high as death from strokes.

* At least 100,000 people in the U.S. die as a result of infections from hospital-bred bacteria. According to the Center for Disease Control, these microbes have become resistant to at least one of the various antibiotics that doctors prescribed in order to kill them off. The microbes don’t die.

* The irony is that a good number of deaths from infections by hospital-bred bacteria could easily have been prevented if healthcare professionals observed simple precautions, including hand washing.

* There is a study that says doctors do not wash hands as often as they should. Only 44 percent washed when no one was looking, but when they knew someone was watching, 61 percent washed up. The standard is 100 percent — they should wash every time they are about to touch a patient.

* The negligence happens on everyone, rich or poor. Back in November, Safety Issues reported on the incident that affected the newborn twins of a noted actor. The infants were given a blood thinner dose 1,000 times the prescribed quantity soon after birth.

But even with unrelenting vigilance, the core problem remains: overcrowding. There are more patients than resources for treatment. The problem is similar to traffic jams: it is not that doctors and nurses are so lacking; it is more because patients tend to come in all at nearly the same time or not at all.

The challenge is daunting. But the head of a major hospital in Boston says people should stop depending on an outside party to fix their problem; rather, they should take a more active role and take charge of caring for their health.

Safety Tip:

* If you’re hospitalized, disinfect your mouth regularly. Bacteria in your mouth could infiltrate your lungs and cause pneumonia, a dangerous killer in hospitals.