Dr. Hands of Death and Destruction

Warning: This article is not for the faint of heart. I had heard of unfortunate and grotesque situations such as these, but this article shocked me. Marty Makary, a Harvard medical student (now surgeon) published an article for the Wall Street Journal titled “How to Stop Hospitals from Killing Us.” In this article, he discusses the enormously high percentages of mistakes, mix-ups, and fatalities hospitals make on a daily basis!

Makary says that on average, U.S. surgeons will operate on the wrong body part 40 times per week. Granted, we do not know how many patients a surgeon may see in a given week, but 40 times seems like a pretty high number to me. Furthermore, he uncovered that one-quarter of all patients will be harmed due to medical errors. If those medical errors were turned in to a “disease,” they would be the 6th deadliest disease in our nation, killing 100,000 people a year. After reading this article, I followed up on a recent video-interview done by Makary and the WSJ. In his interview Makary said that the statistics were done nearly a decade ago, and the results “shocked the nation.” Unfortunately, the numbers have now increased to 200,000 and the disease would be ranked as the number 3 most deadliest!

So how is all of this happening, and why are people not being held accountable or even aware?
The main problem being identified is the lack of transparency in the hospitals, and the unspoken code all doctors have amongst each other. Makary recalls his first day during his rotations and the other resident doctors talking about a “legendary” Dr. Hodad. He was initially confused about this doctor’s publicity because he had never heard of the name, but later found out it was a nickname- standing for Hands of death and destruction. This doctor had solidified a reputation for himself as a reputable and successful surgeon, and was often requested by celebrities and praised by his patients. Although most doctors and residents new of his mistakes, they never spoke out because that was not part of the “culture.” Makary soon finds out that the hospital culture is very important and without a high reputation, most doctors would be shunned and out of work instantly.

Through his studies, Markay has identified five main steps that hospitals and doctors could take, to help eliminate this growing problem, and hold doctors more accountable for their actions. He wishes to create a better management operations system that will keep patients safer and aid them in deciding which hospital to attend. The five steps are the following: Cameras, Online dashboards for patient reviews, safety culture scores taken by nurses and doctors, open note taking by doctors, and elimination of gagging (the protection of using a doctor/hospitals name during a lawsuit).

Have you ever had or heard of an unfortunate instance while staying at a hospital? Do you believe these changes will take place, or will doctors be outraged at Markay’s studies and conclusions?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578008263334441352.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

2 thoughts on “Dr. Hands of Death and Destruction

  1. I think these changes should take place immediately. I am sure there are more doctors like Markay who have seen or heard things about other malpractice doctors and have not done anything because of the hospital “code”. Patient reviews would be essential, open note taking and safety culture scores as well. I am not sure if cameras or the elimination of gagging will get through. It seems as though doctors have a lot of say in what goes on in the hospital and if they do not consent to those terms, then the changes may not take place.

  2. I personally think that this is the doctors should be more responsible for what their have done since they are dealing with other’s life. I do agree with Makary that the hospital should “create a better management operations system that will keep patients safer and aid them,” but I wasn’t sure if the five steps would be successful. Becoming a doctor or nurse, it should be something from their heart that they truly want to save someone’s life. By having a rule or law might not be as effective as when they really want to do.

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