THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME TO BE ADMITTED TO THE HOSPITAL Hospital errors increase on holidays, weekends, at night & in July. ... It is crucial for physicians to recognize high risk pregnancies because they require much closer monitoring as well as astute management. Failure to properly monitor and manage a high risk pregnancy can cause the baby to suffer birth injuries and develop conditions such as cerebral palsy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), seizures, motor disorders and intellectual and developmental delays. ... Tragic errors that occur in hospitals include medication and surgical mistakes, infection, and failure to recognize and treat patients – including unborn babies – who are in distress. These errors are more likely to occur during certain time periods. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Easter, the 4th of July and summer breaks are when senior medical personnel tend to take their vacations. Thus, during holidays, hospitals are left with a less senior and less experienced medical team. In addition, hospitals may be grossly understaffed during the holidays. ... The same phenomenon occurs on weekends and during evenings. Senior staff members want their weekends off, and they want to go home in the evening. Not only do the experienced and senior staff members have evenings and weekends off, but during these periods, the hospital is understaffed and the evening and nighttime staff is usually comprised of temporary and part-time employees. ... There are numerous studies that discuss the high rate of preventable tragedies that occur in hospitals at night. These nighttime tragedies include a higher rate of death for patients who suffer heart attacks and newborn babies, as well as higher incidents of medication errors. ... July is a dangerous month to be in the hospital. Firstly, this is when the experienced staff tend to take their vacations. Secondly, July is the month in which new residents and fellows start their programs at medical institutions. Anyone who has worked at a hospital during July can tell you about the confusion, lack of effective communication and numerous mistakes that are made during this month. Research shows that the incidence of medication mistakes and death from these mistakes spikes in July. Read our entire piece: abclawcenters/blog/2014/08/29/warren-birth-injury-cerebral-palsy-148752
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 13:37:16 +0000