Preventable medical errors can cause a great deal of harm and loss. The medical industry is one of the richest and most powerful ones in the United States. It's an industry that's so large and influential because the United States, as a country, spends a lot on healthcare. It's a need. However, despite the overinflated bills, the unexpected costs, and the fact that healthcare, in general, has among the best professionals in the United States, there are still crucial errors that are made while following procedures. These errors are all preventable, yet they still occur and still cause harm to many people. The medical industry is one that prides itself on having the most talented and the most educated people, yet people end up dying during procedures due to preventable mistakes. We will be taking a look at some of the most essential reads on medical errors in this blog.
Let's take a look at some of the preventable medical errors that can have disastrous effects on the lives of people. These include medication errors that involve prescribing the wrong dose or failing to account for drug interactions, which can even lead to death. Unnecessary surgery can be particularly disastrous as it can involve operating on the wrong side of a person's body, leading to potential death or lifelong scars/damage. One of the most common infections is when germs enter the bloodstream through a central line. This causes thousands of deaths every year.
We'll be presenting a list of books on medical errors. Let's take a look at some of them. These ten books are going to be centered around the healthcare industry and the shortcomings of the medical practitioners within it:
1. Vanilla Ice Cream‚ Strawberry Smoothies‚ and Lots of Drugs By Richard Caits
This is a memoir about the author's mother and her days in the American healthcare system before she passed away. Much of the book deals with the preventable medical errors and flaws within the US healthcare system.
2. Preventable Medical Errors: The Role of Different Sciences in Medical Education and Practice By Erwin B. Montgomery Jr. MD
This book serves as a guide for the reader to be able to provide medical care to someone with the intention of preventing any medical errors that might arise from any procedures gone wrong.
3. When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error By MD Danielle Ofri
This book tries to explain that many patients expect things to go a certain way when they enter the medical healthcare system. However, there are still many issues pertaining to the safety of the patients and the ways in which they can be harmed.
4. What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine By MD Danielle Ofri
This book tries to explain the emotions that doctors feel during their job and how they can play a role in affecting how they perform their duties. The book also talks about the trauma that doctors face when they witness the grim realities of trying to save lives.
5. Medical Error and Patient Safety: Human Factors By George A. Peters
This book explains how there's a great deal of possibility of medical error in the healthcare industry and, as a result, exposes the vulnerabilities in the healthcare system; this includes emergency services, healthcare facilities as well as infection control.
6. The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It Marty Makary M.D
This book talks about how the costs of the healthcare system have risen to absurd heights; much of the costs don't even have much to do with providing healthcare, according to the author. This book tries to challenge the medical establishment and its monetary practices and tries to remind people that medicine's noble heritage was one of caring for people at their weakest.
7. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care T.R. Reid
This book shows that there are many healthcare systems all over the world that provide far cheaper and more affordable healthcare than in the United States. A very informative book that shows that healthcare can be made affordable.
8. An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back By Elisabeth Rosenthal
This book exposes the reality that much of healthcare is taken over by big businesses that simply seek to exploit the most vulnerable and the people in society who are greatly in need of care.
9. Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health By Marty Makary M.D.
This book shows how medicine gets many details about health wrong and how medicine evolves, and when people look back at what was historically considered correct, it can often be shocking to see. The book gives many examples to back it up.
10. How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America By Otis Webb Brawley MD
This book exposes how healthcare is simply focused on financial incentives rather than providing adequate medical care to the vulnerable.
Hopefully, you enjoyed reading this blog about preventable medical errors and found the books contained within the list to be informative and intriguing.