MISTAKES BY PATIENTS: ARE THEY REALLY THAT BAD??

When there is talk about medical errors, the spotlight is always on the mistakes doctors or the medical staff. No emphasis is given on the mistakes committed by the patient, either knowingly or unknowingly, during the course of his treatment. The truth is that patients often make mistakes as well. There can be a number of reasons for these mistakes.

At times, the patients are confused, as they did not get the things explained by the doctor clearly. They do not understand the doctor’s medical jargon. Many patients are scared to cross question the doctor as they are reluctant to display their lack of knowledge to the doctor. They continue to simply nod their heads, with the doctor being misled into thinking that the patient has understood what is being told to him.

For example, a patient has been prescribed 0.5 mg of a particular medicine, and he ends-up taking 5 mg by mistake. This can be attributed to the fact that he did not understand what the decimal point meant. Mistakes like these can be both upsetting as well as irritating for the patient and the doctor. The patient is scared that in taking more than the recommended dose, he can harm his health as he has messed up with his medications.

The doctor is irritated, because he feels that he did an excellent job with giving all the right instructions and explaining how the medicine has to be taken. If the patient did not understand, he could have simply asked the doctor for clarification and cross-check with the doctor, rather than pretending to understand. Doctors sometimes tend to forget that patients can be quite intimidated by them.

It is important to understand that anyone can make mistakes, and being charitable and understanding is the best way to move beyond the situation. After all, a mistake is a mistake, and it has not been done deliberately. Rather than starting to assume that all patients are idiots, these mistakes can prove to be ideal learning opportunities. The fact is that patients make mistakes more often than doctors realize. They just tend to cover their mistakes up as they are scared that it would upset the doctor and make him angry, that the doctor will admonish them for the slip up.

The patient should have enough confidence in the doctor to let him know when a mistake is made. Then it would be up to the doctor to resolve it. Sometimes these are not much more than minor issues, which can be safely ignored. Of course there can be times when these mistakes can create major problems. However, in most of the cases, these too can be tackled, but only if the patient is willing to confide in the doctor. Interestingly, sometimes these mistakes can lead to some unforeseen events, which can actually help to advance medical science.

For instance, if the patient takes a lower dose than the one prescribed, and still has a good therapeutic response, the doctor might just start prescribing the lower dose to all his patients, because it may be as effective as the standard recommended dose. This is especially true when patients are taking alternative medicines.

Patients often tend to hide this information from their doctor, because they are scared he may get upset with them for doing non-standard treatment. However, if they get better and share this information, the doctor can learn from their experience, if he is willing to keep an open mind. Maybe he can even start advising other patients to try out alternative medicines.

Patient education can play a very important role in reducing the errors which patients inadvertently make, and it is imperative that the doctors and hospitals invest in tools and techniques that will help patients become better informed.

DENTAL INSURANCE: NEED OF THE HOUR

Taking proper care of one’s teeth and gums requires more than just brushing every day. One also needs to visit a dentist at least twice a year for a thorough check-up and treatment, if required. Dental procedures are presumed to be quite costly, leading quite many people to avoid a dental surgeon and land up in the hands of quacks.

One of the more common dental procedures, fillings, can cost several hundreds of rupees, depending on the charges of a particular dentist, based upon his specialty and experience. Likewise, procedures such as root canals and dental extractions can cost up to several thousands of rupees. If a dentist determines that these procedures are necessary, putting them off because of lack of funds can be detrimental to the teeth and gums in particular, and the overall health in general.

Many people skip a visit to the dentist because they cannot afford it. What they do not know is that something as simple as a decayed tooth or a poor dental health can lead to something as serious as a heart disease. A dental insurance plan, therefore, is the need of the hour.

Without insurance, the cost of these procedures quickly adds up. Also, with the ever increasing dental problems due to a rise in unhealthy eating habits, more treatment is required than simple preventative measures, making one look at a very high bill.

A dental insurance plan can help pay for some, most or all of the cost associated with these procedures. It can also provide one with access to care he may not have been able to afford otherwise. Without dental insurance, people are less likely to take proper care of their teeth. This is usually because they cannot afford to go to the dentist, or would rather spend their money elsewhere. Knowing that at least a part of one’s dental treatment will be covered is an incentive to seek out that treatment. Preventative treatment not only helps you safeguard against future problems, but also provides the opportunity to catch potential problems before they become too serious and require more extensive and expensive procedures.

It is not uncommon to find quacks or some not-so-honest doctors executing some crude treatment in order to earn easy money. These people tend to get away easily with these unfair practices as no proper treatment notes are put in the patient’s O.P.D. card. With the advent of dental insurance, such practices would be a thing of the past as proper notes have to be written for each and every work done in order to get claims from the insurance companies.

If the government starts offering dental insurance benefits, then there would be nothing like it. That would be the best insurance one can get. Because the government can subsidize a part of or the entire premium, one would be able to have access to more insurance coverage. Even if the government does not start any dental insurance plans in the near future, the private companies can come up with dental insurance plans of their own, and one can still get affordable and cost-effective dental treatment.

Dental insurance, looking at the rapidity of spread of dental diseases, is a must for everyone. Even if one opts for lesser coverage in order to pay a lower premium, it would still be better than nothing. But like with any type of insurance, before going to take any policy, it has to be first made sure that the insurance company is properly licensed for the same and is registered with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) of India, and not a fraudulent one.

Dental insurance does save one a lot of money. A middle class family man should keep dental insurance as a priority. With proper care, a person’s teeth and that of his children can and should last a lifetime. And with dental insurance, huge expenses are expected not to stand between a person and good overall health.

TIME FOR “CORRUPT” DOCTORS TO IMPROVE

There is a lot of anguish about the deplorable state of medical profession in the country these days. People do not hold doctors in the same high regard the way they used to do a few decades ago. More than half of the general population still respects their personal doctor. But looking at the broader perspective, it is now a very common belief that doctors, mostly the younger generation, are corrupt (they make underhand deals with pharmaceutical companies), unethical (they take cuts from medical representatives) and greedy (they over-test and over-treat in order to make more money). The reputation of the entire medical fraternity is in a state of free fall.

Nowadays, the society tends to prioritize professionalism over money which, in turn, puts medical profession more and more under the scanner. Commercialism is rampant and is affecting the society as a whole. And medical practitioners are equally affected by this trend of the society.

Another fact is that a large number of private medical colleges are set up by politicians and businessmen, wanting to make quick money. These colleges charge an exorbitant fee and in order to recover their expenses, fresh graduates end up overcharging their patients. To them, this seems to be the only way they would be able to get a return of their investment on the capitation fee they coughed up to ensure that the word “Dr.” gets prefixed to their names.

These days, numerous examples of unacceptable activities on the part of such medical practitioners can be seen when one looks around. It is now common for young doctors to be involved in under-the-table dealings. Most of them do not provide patients with any receipts or any documentation of the treatment provided. It is now also common for young, “fresh-blooded” doctors to make patients wait for hours on end even after giving an appointment, just to look busy. Doctors these days are uncommunicative, not bothering to explain the patient what exactly is happening to his body. They also tend to cover up and hide facts when there is any complication or error on their part.

The brunt of such practices by a corrupt few has to be taken by the whole medical fraternity. When numerous efforts of a meticulous doctor are unable to fetch the desired results, the “corrupt” reputation of doctors surfaces, leading to a catastrophe. No matter how much these doctors rationalize and justify their aberrant behavior, the fact is that it is both unethical and illegal. A doctor indulging in such practices needs to put himself back on the right track.

Many patients feel helpless and powerless in front of their doctors, leading to an imbalance in the doctor-patient relationship. When one is sick, the last thing he wants to do is to challenge and confront his doctor. It is true that one should have faith on his doctor, but it is one’s right to be informed about his own body. By allowing doctors to get away with such unacceptable behavior, patients are inadvertently encouraging them and the doctor also is not deterred from behaving badly with other patients either.

The doctor-patient relationship is a mutual one and one just cannot survive without the other. A person needs to know when to put his foot down. If patients are able to shrug off the cloak of complacency and muster up a bit of courage, changes are meant to take place.

The next time before complaining about a doctor, one should ask himself whether any steps were taken by him to alleviate the situation. If nothing of the sort was done, it also means the person is equally a part of the problem. The only way to expect some improvement in the way things around progress is to be a part of the change. The only reason a person can sit atop a pedestal is because the other one is on his knees.