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.