In 2006, a survey of hospitals found that 16% had suffered some kind of tube mix-ups at their facility.  For years now, patient safety groups have called for simple requirements that would prevent tubes for one specific purpose from being used for another purpose, just like nozzles at the gas station prevent drivers from using the wrong fuel.  However, strong opposition by the medical device industry and inaction by the Food And Drug Administration have prevented these basic safeguards from being put in place.

As a result, there are hundreds of patient deaths and injuries every year traced to tube mixups.  What's worse, no Arizona medical malpractice lawyer would be able to tell you exactly how many people are being injured or killed every from the wrong tube inserted into their bodies.  These mistakes are rarely reported, and the medical device industry has been hugely successful in shielding the often devastating impact of these errors.

A patient in critical care in a hospital may have more than one tube inserted into his body.  These tubes aid in the delivery of medications and nutrients to the patient, as well as in the extraction of fluids, gases or blood.  With so many tubes being used for a variety of different purposes, errors are far too common.  Overstressed nurses are responsible for connecting and disconnecting a number of tubes every day, and tube mix-ups and errors do occur.

As with the fight against medication errors, there's plenty of finger pointing and blame to go around when it comes to tube mix-up errors.  Since 1996, safety groups have advocated that tubes that are used for different functions be made incompatible, so that they're not used for other purposes.  It would be a simple fix to a potentially serious problem, but as you would expect, there has been plenty of procrastination and finger pointing over the issue. The hospitals blame the tube manufacturers for errors, while the manufacturers blame the regulators, hospitals and standards groups.

The New York Times illustrates with some examples of tube mix ups that have taken place around the country.  The examples are horrifying, and include spinal anesthetics and liquid food bags connected to tubes entering veins.  Many of these errors are fatal.  Some of them are mind-boggling.  In one instance, intravenous fluid was connected to a tube that was meant to deliver oxygen, resulting in death by suffocation.

In the 21st century, it's a matter of shame to Arizona medical malpractice attorneys that such errors that can be prevented with some of the most basic safeguards, continue to occur.

Months after the Food and Drug Administration began an investigation into dozens of cases of radiation overdoses that have left scores of patients injured, Arizona medical malpractice lawyers, patients and patient safety group have few clues to how these overdoses occurred. 

The New York Times first brought national attention to patient overdoses at some of the country's biggest hospitals, including Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai.  The overdoses were noticed last summer, and since then, the Food and Drug Administration has begun an investigation into these cases.  Ten months later, the agency still has not made clear what these investigations have yielded.  In the meantime, equipment manufacturers including GE, and the hospitals where these overdoses occurred, continue to engage in a battle of words blaming each other for the over-radiation.

GE's equipment is involved in many of the radiation cases, although some of the scanners were made by Toshiba.  GE says that the over-radiation was the result of programming errors that were made by the staff of the hospitals.  To be fair, preliminary investigations have not revealed any equipment malfunctioning problems.  However, the hospitals insist that the equipment was designed unsafely, and should have come with proper safeguards that would have automatically shut the equipment down if there was a danger of over-radiation.

Unfortunately, the equipment did not come with such safeguards or devices.  As a result, dozens of patients received massive radiation overdoses that has left them with hair loss, headaches, and confusion and fear of long-term health effects from the over-radiation.  Among the long-term health effects these patients face, is the development of cancer.

Arizona medical malpractice lawyers hope the FDA will wind up its investigation quickly, and recommend measures that can be taken by other hospitals around the country to prevent more over dosages.

Prescription drug errors injure more than 1.5 million patients in the US every year.  Most of these errors are entirely preventable, and occur mainly because two medications sound alike, or because pharmacists misread dosages.  There is much that patients can do to avoid suffering injuries caused by prescription errors.

Arizona medical malpractice lawyers believe the best thing you could do to reduce your chances of a prescription error is to make sure you know the name of the medication you’ve been prescribed, and the dosage.  If you're unable to read the doctor's prescription, it’s highly likely that a pharmacist won't be able to either.  Most errors occur because pharmacists misread a prescription.  That happens when medications have similar names.  These names look similar when they are written on a prescription, or sound similar when they are read out in the pharmacy.  In any case, a mix-up can have lethal consequences.

Before you leave the doctor’s office, make sure that you understand the dosage, side effects of medication, the mode of usage (before or after meals) and other important details that can impact the way you ingest the medication.

Follow your doctor's instructions carefully.

If you want your prescription translated into English, you can get the pharmacist to translate it for you.  Most pharmacies will have translation software, although the accuracy of these is debatable.  If you need your prescriptions, take someone who speaks English along with you.

Before you leave the pharmacy, make sure that you have the right medication.  Check the refill bottle and the label.  Do they look the same as the last time you had a refill?  If you have doubts, ask questions.

Try to use the same pharmacy as much as possible for your medication needs.  This way, you may be able to avoid errors because the pharmacy database keeps track of errors.

The survey was conducted by researchers at the Mountain Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, and included a total of 1,891 doctors in various specialties. The results of the survey have been published in JAMA. According to the survey,

• 69% of respondents felt they were equipped to deal with a colleague who was impaired.
• An approximate 64% of respondents reported that they believed they were equipped to deal with an incompetent colleague.
• 17% of respondents said they had had personal knowledge of an incompetent physician, and out of this, 67% said that they reported that physician or colleague.

The American Medical Association requires that doctors and physicians report intoxicated, impaired, unethical or incompetent doctors. The results of the survey show that far too many doctors don't seem to believe that this very necessary.

So, why would a doctor just look the other way when he sees a colleague significantly impaired? The answers are complex. Sometimes, physicians believe that reporting the doctor wouldn't actually make a difference to the situation, and other times, there is a fear of retribution from the intoxicated or incompetent doctor. That's confirmed by one fact in the study, which showed that doctors who were part of a one or two-person practice, belonged to a racial minority, or who graduated from non-American medical schools, were less likely to report intoxicated or incompetent colleagues, than doctors at hospitals or medical schools. There are also likely some feelings of empathy for the intoxicated doctor. It's also possible that doctors fear being sued by the physician they report.

Ultimately, patient safety is not about what's best for the doctors, but what's best for the patient. Doctors have a moral obligation to make it known when one of their colleagues is not in a position to discharge his duties safely. As Arizona medical malpractice lawyers know, failure to do so can be catastrophic, and the medical community needs to examine this issue.

It’s called simply the “July Effect.” Medical care professionals and Arizona medical practice lawyers have known for decades that the incidences of medication errors in hospitals tend to increase during the month of July. There's always been an explanation for this too. July is when many medical residents begin their residencies. These inexperienced residents are more prone to make medication errors. This fact has now been confirmed by a study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego.

The researchers looked at more than 244,000 death certificates between 1979 and 2006 in which medication errors were the primary cause of death. They noticed a spike in deaths due to medication errors in the month of July. While errors during the other months remained more or less constant, medication errors during July spiked by up 10%. There was no corresponding spike in other causes of death in July, or in deaths outside of hospitals during this month. These medication errors included accidental overdoses, administering the wrong dose of medicine, and errors in the use of the drug during medical and surgical procedures.

The researchers have published the results of their study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. They are calling for a greater evaluation of the responsibilities that medical residents are given when they begin their residencies. They're also calling for other ways to decrease the rates of medication errors, including increasing education for new medical residents about medication safety, and better supervision of medical residents.

If you can't avoid visiting a hospital in the month of July, Arizona medical malpractice attorneys would encourage you to take a friend or relative along to act as an advocate for you. This person should be responsible for making sure that medications that are administered to you, are administered correctly. If you're able to, make sure that you are taking the correct dosage and correct medication by reading the labels.