Though modern healthcare as seen as a lifesaver for many, treatment mistakes can often cause more harm than good. Unsafe medical practices pose an issue on the reliability of healthcare. In many countries, especially less developed ones, individuals experience the consequences of unsafe care for years after their treatment or surgical procedure. According to the World Health Organization, 1/10th of patients worldwide suffer from bad healthcare and more than 3 million people lose their lives due to unsafe care. Much of this pain can be prevented, as common mistakes can be easily averted; this includes medication issues, problematic surgeries, infections related to the hospital environment, misidentifying patients, unsterile blood transfusions, and more. On an economic standpoint, unsafe care causes a reduction in global economic growth by 0.7% annually. Some common causes of patient deaths that are preventable are listed below.
- Venous Thromboembolism (Blood Clotting) can be found in patients who stay in the hospital for long periods of time, and it makes up a third of patient mistreatment.
- Unsterile Vaccinations are given out globally, and a significant amount of Hepatitis B (1.67 million), Hepatitis C 157,592-315,120), and HIV (16,939-33,877) infections were attributed to unsafe injections during the years 2000-2010.
- Sepsis occurs when the human body facilitates a strong response to infectious agents, and data shows that in hospitals, 23.6% of sepsis cases originated from health care practices and 24.4% of those individuals passed away due to sepsis.
- Errors in Medication are found in 1/30th of health care patients and can result in death.
- Errors in Surgery is a widespread problem due to the fact that 300 million surgeries are performed annually, and that 1/10th of “preventable patient harm” is found in surgical procedure environments.
- Misidentifying Patients results in diagnosing individuals incorrectly and treating the patient for problems they don’t have. Maintaining the right records for each patient is crucial for making the healthcare process as smooth as possible.
- Unsterile Blood Transfusions can lead to unfavorable outcomes since individuals can have severe reactions to blood that does not match their type or that is polluted. Out of 62 nations, information shows that out 100,000 administered blood components, 12.2 of them result in serious incidents.
Often, hospitals that are prone to giving patients unsafe care have internal management issues and a lack in organization or technology, which limits them from maintaining accurate records or getting the necessary equipment for sterility and safety.
In order to help reduce the worldwide problem of unsafe care, the World Health Organization has introduced initiatives such as the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030, which deals with the overall mission to combat these healthcare issues. In addition, World Patient Safety Day, which falls on September 17th each year, originated in 2019 in order to help bring more awareness to the most common medical mishaps and how to deal with them.
Sources:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/patient-safety