Atul Gawande's Mistakes In The Medical Field

Background: “When Doctor Make Mistakes” is the essay from Gawande’s book Complications. It is mainly about the mistakes that doctor make.

Atul Gawande in his article “When the Doctor Makes Mistakes” exposes the mystery, uncertainty and fallibility of medicine in true stories that involve real patients. In a society where attorneys protect hospitals and physicians from zealous trials from clients following medical errors, doctors make mistakes is a testimony that Gawande a representative of other doctors speak openly about failures within the medical fields. In this article, Gawande exposes those errors with an intention of showing the entire society and specifically those within the medicine field that when errors are hidden, learning is squelched and those within the system are provided with an opportunity to continue committing the same errors. What you find when you critically analyse Gawande, “When Doctors Make Mistakes essay is how messy and uncertain medicine turns out to be. Throughout the entire article you experience the havoc within the medicine field as the inexperienced doctor misapplies a central line in a patient.

There are two common ways to handle a medical error. One is by blaming the individual or things when the error occurs, called it the “culture of blame”. The other one is by focusing on the safety goal using effective systems and teamwork, called “culture of safety". We may say that one is more applicable than the other, or maybe one is more beneficial than the other. In real life though, only one can be applied in a healthcare system, the one that is proven effective regardless its origin, pragmatic, or .

The reasons that make doctors make mistakes is such a controversial topic, All humans do mistakes but why are doctors being asked when they do? The reason doctors are questioned about their mistakes is because their mistakes have some much bigger consequences than layman mistakes. It's people who work in life-oriented professions whom their actions have a broader impact.

"Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error…" (John Hopkins Medicine). This soaring number has caused medical errors to become the third leading cause of death in the United States. For many people, medicine seems foreign and unknown. People who have lost loved ones due to medical error desperately look for a reason, and many times that blame falls upon doctors. Media has put a negative connotation on doctors as well, causing their reputation to plummet whenever a hospital procedure turns badly. A renown surgeon and author, Atul Gawande, uses his knowledge and experience to give people a new perspective on medicine. In the article "When Doctors Make Mistakes," Gawande uses rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos to prove the need for a change in the medical systems and procedures. He analyzes how the public looks at doctors, giving a new perspective to enlighten the reader that even the best doctors can make mistakes.

It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).

This documentary video is very informative and very useful as eye-opener to all that works in the healthcare industry. John Hopkins patient safety expert have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. This large number, victims of medical error, leads to a stigma that people became questioning and doubting the capabilities of healthcare providers resulting on losing trust. This video “Chasing Zero” is a reminder that all nurses, doctors and all the people that works in healthcare industries should be very cautious on the care they provide to patients. A single error can hurt and worst, it can kill someone. This video made me realize as a nurse, that anyone can make a big mistake regardless of years

Blendon, R. DesRoches, C. Brodie, M., Benson, J. Rosen, A., & Schneider, A. (2002). Views of practicing physicians and the public on medical errors. New England Journal of Medicine. 347, 1933-1940.

As described by Dr. Atul Gawande in his book Complications, medicine “is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge… fallible individuals” making medicine different from other scientific fields

Since we teach students from diverse backgrounds, I hope to gain insight on the understanding of the general population regarding the various topics in medicine, which will enable me to not only to educate these students regarding any false information or gaps in information they may have, but also learn of the common misconceptions in our community, so that I may be able to effectively educate my patients and their families in the future. All in all, I look forward to investing my time and talents in the mini-med program that aims to provide medical education to the next generation of citizens in our

Causes of major medical errors have many different factors and influences. This includes why the patient was being seen to allow such an error, what medical guideline or guideline’s that where not followed that caused the error, what could have been done by staff members to prevent the error, etc. When errors take place, repercussions follow such as the cost incurred to the patient or patient family members, fines the medical worker must pay, and most importantly what is the patients status/prognosis. Not all patients prevail and make it through such awful medical errors.

Nothing is perfect in this world. The mistake is inevitable, whether it be at school or in a workplace, one will always be able to find error nestled somewhere in the system. Because of its inevitability, an error is also very prominent in science, specifically in medicine.

Errors occur in health care as well as every other very complex system that involves human beings. The message in “To Err is Human”, by Archie Cochrane, was that preventing death and injury from medical errors requires dramatic, system wide changes. Health care professionals have customarily viewed errors as a sign of an individual’s incompetence or recklessness. As a result, rather than learning from such events and using information to improve safety and prevent new events, health care professionals have had difficulty admitting or even discussing adverse events often because they fear professional censure, administrative blame, lawsuits, or personal feelings of shame.

Disclosing medical errors is considered necessary by patients and practitioners. They are advised to disclose in the form of an apology when necessary and appropriate. When a medical error causes damage to the patient, it seen as not acceptable because a patient goes for treatment in order to get better not to get worse therefore it calls for the situation to be addressed. When a medical error is not disclosed, the fellow peers who have witnessed the error must decide whether they should remain silent and keep the error to themselves or reveal the error to the higher up, although it would be in good faith to report the medical error to a higher up, unless it has caused harm or long-term damage to the patient. (Youngson. p. 69) There are many hospitals that the practitioners keep the errors made to themselves and do not disclose the medical errors to the families of patients or the patients themselves. Medical errors become a topic of conversation if the family of a patient or the patient themselves become aware about the error. Medical errors are something that should be disclosed in a good faith manner

According to Media Health Leaders, medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the United States. This statistic shows there is an intense problem in not only our country, but around the world, and there needs to be a change. These changes should include requiring all doctors to complete a checklist of requirements before any surgery, calling for every hospital to use brainwave monitors during surgery, and encouraging communication between doctors and both their colleagues and patients.