Follow this good advice from leading
safety experts: It’ll help protect you
against common medical mistakes.
7 ways to Stay Safer
few people look forward to a hospital stay. That’s partly because there are
risks involved. Although you’re in the hospital to improve your health, there are
times when, despite everyone’s best efforts to keep patients safe, things get worse
before they get better. “Hospitals are beneficial places, but they do present risks,”
confirms Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of the quality and safety research
group at the Center for Innovations in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, and author of Safe Patients, Smart
Hospitals: How One Doctor’s Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the
Inside Out (Hudson Street Press, 2010). Fortunately, there are ways to reduce
your risk—mostly by being a very active participant in your care and partnering
with your providers to ensure you get the best treatment possible. Here are
seven simple ways to start right now.
1
Get Involved
The simple truth is that no one cares more about your body than you do.
So if you’re able, avoid simply lying in bed while physicians, nurses and
other staff buzz around you. Bill Munier, M.D., director of the center for qual-
ity improvement and patient safety at the federal government’s Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality, in Rockville, Maryland, puts it simply: “The
more vocal you can be, the better.” For instance, make sure you always understand
any procedures or tests you’re getting and why you need them, as well as pos-
sible complications or side effects. If you aren’t clear on what a doctor or nurse
is telling you, ask them to explain it again (and again, if need be). And remem-
e
d
a
t
r
ber that information is a two-way street: You need to share with every one of
p
o
r your providers all the details they need to take good care of you, whether that
o
c
i
n means telling them about an allergy to a medication, how much alcohol you
e
e
r
really drink or a previous surgery you’ve had. “The four most dangerous words Story by
v
© in a hospital are, ‘This must be right,’” says Robert Wachter, M.D., professor and Cary Barbor
the patient magazine 2010 19
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