20 Tips to Prevent Medical Errors: Transcript

Transcript

20 Tips to Prevent Medical Errors

This is a teleconference sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, conducted in March 2000.

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NARRATOR:
Medical errors are one of the leading causes of death and injury in the United States. They happen when a planned part of medical care doesn't work properly, or when the wrong plan is used in the first place. Errors can occur anywhere: in hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies, nursing homes, or even in your home. If you receive the wrong medicine or test, that's an error. So is getting the wrong diagnosis. Some errors happen when doctors and their patients have problems communicating. Doctor John Eisenberg, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ [pronounced "ark"], offers this advice to patients:

EISENBERG:
SAY TO YOURSELF, DO I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THE PHYSICIAN SAID? DO I KNOW WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE DOING? AND DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO ME? BECAUSE IF IT DOESN'T, THEN YOU OUGHT TO ASK THE PHYSICIAN. TAKE CHARGE. BE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON. GET EDUCATED. AND BE PART OF YOUR OWN HEALTH CARE.

NARRATOR:
AHRQ's free fact sheet, 20 Tips To Help Prevent Medical Errors, is available by calling 1-800-358-9295. Or visit www.ahrq.gov. I'm Bob Tebo for the Consumer Radio Network.