CNN: Don’t Let the Hospital Kill You: Here’s 5 Tips
Hospitals can sometimes cause death. CNN Online reports:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Josh is one of 99,000 people who die each year because of infections acquired in the hospital. As Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York, put it, “You don’t often come across such a big problem that you can prevent.”
Here are five tips to make your hospital stay safe and healthy, so you don’t stumble into a malpractice claim and need a lawyer:
1. Bring your own toys
At the pediatrician’s office, don’t let your child play with the toys or books in the waiting room. “They’re covered with bacteria,” McCaughey says. Also, don’t let your child crawl on the floor; bacteria there could get into cuts on their knees or hands. “This is one place you ought to keep your child sitting still or on your lap,” she says.
2. Heat up your car
Yes, we know that sounds strange. But studies show staying warm before and during surgery can help you fight infection. So the Institute for Healthcare Improvement suggests that in cold weather, you heat up the car, wear warm clothes on the way to the hospital, ask the hospital staff to give you plenty of blankets while you wait for surgery, and ask how they plan to keep you warm during surgery.
3. Want to touch me? Wash your hands first.
Many people feel uncomfortable asking this. Nahum suggests putting it like this: “I didn’t see you wash your hands. Do you mind doing it in front of me?”
Dr. Vicki Rackner, a patient advocate, also has a few ideas for lightening things up. “In the hospital, you can have the grandkids make a sign that says, ‘Please wash your hands and keep Grandma healthy.’ ”
Another suggestion: Put a dish of wrapped candy near the sink and say ‘Could you please wash your hands, and oh, please take some candy with you when we’re done.’ ”
If the doctor or nurse has gloves on, are you safe? “Don’t be falsely assured by gloves,” McCaughey says. “If they put on gloves without washing their hands first, those gloves are immediately contaminated.”
4. Ask where that syringe has been
Doctors offices sometimes reuse syringes — it’s unusual, but it happens. In fact, there have been 14 documented outbreaks of hepatitis since 1999 because of reused syringes. The recent outbreak in Nevada, where 50,000 people will be notified that they might have been infected at a colonoscopy clinic, is one example.
It’s not an easy question to ask, but when someone’s heading at you with a syringe, ask if this is the first time it’s been used.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health, suggests phrasing it like this: “I read in the paper that some doctors are reusing syringes. I can’t imagine anyone would do that. Do you?”
5. Having surgery? Speak up!
A week or so before surgery, ask your doctor whether you should wash your skin daily with a disinfectant such as chlorhexidine to prepare.
Also, ask whether you should have a nasal or skin swab for MRSA, the superbug that causes many hospital infections. If you’ve got it, you can be treated with antibiotics.
The day of surgery, if the surgical site needs to be shaved, ask to be clippered, not shaved with a razor, which can create nicks where bacteria thrive.
Also on the day of surgery, if your doctor has ordered IV antibiotics just before surgery, make sure you get them, as they’re sometimes forgotten.
It all boils down to one core medical principle to stay healthy and avoid the legal issue of medical malpractice:
Passivity kills. “People need to start participating instead of just being spectators when it comes to their medical care,” [Nahum] says. “You need to do your due diligence.”