5 ms·

In many areas of practice the US provides some of the best care in the world. Places like MD Anderson in Houston and Sloan in NYC attract sick people from all

by nugget 7y ago

In many areas of practice the US provides some of the best care in the world. Places like MD Anderson in Houston and Sloan in NYC attract sick people from all over the world for a reason. It's fair to credit these institutions for what they do well. >you cannot evade a statistic like that The best advice I tell people is to make sure you have a patient advocate (family member or friend) with you 24/7 when you are hospitalized aka "in the system". I stayed with a friend for a one week hospitalization and witnessed multiple preventable medical errors that could have resulted in intubation and admission to the ICU (and perhaps death). I had to physically intervene to prevent the administration of a contraindicated drug which my friend had explicitly declined. I had to diagnose and fix faulty bedside telemetry myself. I had to retrain the CNAs on how to accurately collect sublingual temperature readings. The entire experience was quite eye opening. I've never spent time in a hospital in Europe but I would be surprised if the benefit of an advocate was not somewhat universal.

disabled 7y ago
I agree with you on this 100%. You do absolutely need somebody with you in the hospital 24/7, as a lot of things happen that should not. This is unquestionably true in the United States. However, everybody should have a friend or family member with them at the hospital 24/7, anywhere in the world. While what you said is absolutely true, there are serious breaks in continuity of care that allow for these things to happen too. Not having a true standardized health record (versus something that is effectively a billing machine) that can be accessed anywhere, by healthcare professionals, and without obstacles is extremely disastrous. This needs to be studied more. What I am trying to say is that staying in the hospital 24/7 as an advocate may be a necessary and needed remedy, besides being something that should be necessary in general. But only works as a remedy in the most basic sense.
- sizzle 7y ago
  I wish there was a tech solution to having oversight on the mistakes of the hospital care team. Maybe the patient can wear a sort of body cam over the bed to police the care team staff and have some machine learning algorithm develop a confidence score on their technique in administering correct medications (or catching incorrect medication or dosage pre-administration), verifying time spent since last time patient was checked and quality of care spent when they did check on patient (if they need to be changed, are they comfortable, do they need to be adjusted to avoid pressure sores, etc), policing them when not sanitizing hands or covering face to avoid infecting immunocompromised patient, policing physicians to see if they actually checked on patients and if they are charting procedures to bill insurance that they never performed or "upcoding" to extract more insurance $$$ etc etc. I have a background in the sciences and was premed myself, so I am familiar with the medical field (completed premed coursework to attend medical school + know the process for becoming a board certified and practicing physician) and am passionate about healthcare and human centered design (have years of doing great UX work in tech and pharmaceutical companies). Contact info is in bio. Would love to talk to anyone else interested in this to get something going and working on solving these problems. My dad had a hemorrhagic stroke and I'm bedside every night and passionate about making sure his care team does their job and prolongs his life so we can get out of the hospital and on he road to recovery. I would love to scale this up to patients in hospital beds globally and save lives from avoidable medical care mistakes and oversight!!
disabled 7y ago
Also: I live in Houston. You can look at my comment history to verify this. We have a close friend whose husband died from stage 4 colon cancer. Our friend caught the nurses at MD Anderson hooking him up to the wrong chemotherapy drug--not once--but twice. The doctors may be phenomenal and unbelievably amazing. But when it comes to general care, I have serious doubts.
- sizzle 7y ago
  Yup it's the recovery phase that can be more deadly. I have been fighting with nurses that come into the room, not covering their face while coughing and clearly having a cold when caring for my immunocompromised father, among dropping medical implements and not changing gloves after touching soiled or germ laden objects then attending to my father for medications etc. This stuff is frightening, if I wasn't here he would surely develop a life threatening infection in his immunocompromised state (he already did a course of antibiotics for something he picked up from the hospital environment.. pseudomonas?)
sizzle 7y ago
Thank you for saying this as I'm sitting here bedside with my dad 2 months post intracranial hemorrhagic stroke and watching his care team make mistake after mistake, giving him aspirin, ibuprofen (blood thinners for a hemorrhagic stroke patient is not good!), not covering their face when visibly having a cold and coughing while he is in an immunocompromised state (can get deadly infection complications quick), not attending to his needs when he soils himself so he can be in bed for hours in agony and is not able to alert them (he is ESL and has stroke induced aphasia so can't speak much, right side paralysis so he can't really press the nurse call light let alone remember to). To them he is just another patient and a number in the system. I've seen them cut corners and get frustrated doing their job (having to change him etc) and talking behind our backs in the hallways when I'm getting on their case to get his BP meds ASAP and notify doctor (high blood pressure >160 systolic is BAD for hemorrhagic stroke patients). Anyone have any tips or resources for how I'm supposed to be optimizing his recovery and shield him from mistakes of his care team? Thanks, this is really taking a toll on me and I'm trying my best everyday to make sure he gets out of the hospital setting and on the road to recovery. I've been by his side every night switching with another family member for 24/7 coverage for months now.
- disabled 7y ago
  I will work on this for you. I will reply to this comment within the next 24 hours, I promise. I am sorry that you are going through this. You are a wonderful son/daughter. I am sure your dad appreciates you in an incredible way.
- disabled 7y ago
  Also, I saw your other comment. I am definitely in on the project. I have worked on other health-related projects. My background is in electrical engineering. I have 1 year left of school. I plan on returning in the fall. Obviously artificially intelligence has been overhyped. But what it really is especially capable of doing at this point is preventing human error. There are lots of various things that could be done. I am not focusing on purely AI as one has to be open-minded in the design process. I will contact you in the morning.
  - 7y ago

by nugget 7y ago

disabled 7y ago

I agree with you on this 100%. You do absolutely need somebody with you in the hospital 24/7, as a lot of things happen that should not. This is unquestionably true in the United States. However, everybody should have a friend or family member with them at the hospital 24/7, anywhere in the world. While what you said is absolutely true, there are serious breaks in continuity of care that allow for these things to happen too. Not having a true standardized health record (versus something that is effectively a billing machine) that can be accessed anywhere, by healthcare professionals, and without obstacles is extremely disastrous. This needs to be studied more. What I am trying to say is that staying in the hospital 24/7 as an advocate may be a necessary and needed remedy, besides being something that should be necessary in general. But only works as a remedy in the most basic sense.

sizzle 7y ago
I wish there was a tech solution to having oversight on the mistakes of the hospital care team. Maybe the patient can wear a sort of body cam over the bed to police the care team staff and have some machine learning algorithm develop a confidence score on their technique in administering correct medications (or catching incorrect medication or dosage pre-administration), verifying time spent since last time patient was checked and quality of care spent when they did check on patient (if they need to be changed, are they comfortable, do they need to be adjusted to avoid pressure sores, etc), policing them when not sanitizing hands or covering face to avoid infecting immunocompromised patient, policing physicians to see if they actually checked on patients and if they are charting procedures to bill insurance that they never performed or "upcoding" to extract more insurance $$$ etc etc. I have a background in the sciences and was premed myself, so I am familiar with the medical field (completed premed coursework to attend medical school + know the process for becoming a board certified and practicing physician) and am passionate about healthcare and human centered design (have years of doing great UX work in tech and pharmaceutical companies). Contact info is in bio. Would love to talk to anyone else interested in this to get something going and working on solving these problems. My dad had a hemorrhagic stroke and I'm bedside every night and passionate about making sure his care team does their job and prolongs his life so we can get out of the hospital and on he road to recovery. I would love to scale this up to patients in hospital beds globally and save lives from avoidable medical care mistakes and oversight!!

disabled 7y ago

Also: I live in Houston. You can look at my comment history to verify this. We have a close friend whose husband died from stage 4 colon cancer. Our friend caught the nurses at MD Anderson hooking him up to the wrong chemotherapy drug--not once--but twice. The doctors may be phenomenal and unbelievably amazing. But when it comes to general care, I have serious doubts.

sizzle 7y ago
Yup it's the recovery phase that can be more deadly. I have been fighting with nurses that come into the room, not covering their face while coughing and clearly having a cold when caring for my immunocompromised father, among dropping medical implements and not changing gloves after touching soiled or germ laden objects then attending to my father for medications etc. This stuff is frightening, if I wasn't here he would surely develop a life threatening infection in his immunocompromised state (he already did a course of antibiotics for something he picked up from the hospital environment.. pseudomonas?)

sizzle 7y ago

Thank you for saying this as I'm sitting here bedside with my dad 2 months post intracranial hemorrhagic stroke and watching his care team make mistake after mistake, giving him aspirin, ibuprofen (blood thinners for a hemorrhagic stroke patient is not good!), not covering their face when visibly having a cold and coughing while he is in an immunocompromised state (can get deadly infection complications quick), not attending to his needs when he soils himself so he can be in bed for hours in agony and is not able to alert them (he is ESL and has stroke induced aphasia so can't speak much, right side paralysis so he can't really press the nurse call light let alone remember to). To them he is just another patient and a number in the system. I've seen them cut corners and get frustrated doing their job (having to change him etc) and talking behind our backs in the hallways when I'm getting on their case to get his BP meds ASAP and notify doctor (high blood pressure >160 systolic is BAD for hemorrhagic stroke patients). Anyone have any tips or resources for how I'm supposed to be optimizing his recovery and shield him from mistakes of his care team? Thanks, this is really taking a toll on me and I'm trying my best everyday to make sure he gets out of the hospital setting and on the road to recovery. I've been by his side every night switching with another family member for 24/7 coverage for months now.

disabled 7y ago
I will work on this for you. I will reply to this comment within the next 24 hours, I promise. I am sorry that you are going through this. You are a wonderful son/daughter. I am sure your dad appreciates you in an incredible way.
disabled 7y ago
Also, I saw your other comment. I am definitely in on the project. I have worked on other health-related projects. My background is in electrical engineering. I have 1 year left of school. I plan on returning in the fall. Obviously artificially intelligence has been overhyped. But what it really is especially capable of doing at this point is preventing human error. There are lots of various things that could be done. I am not focusing on purely AI as one has to be open-minded in the design process. I will contact you in the morning.
- 7y ago