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American Morning

Doctor Comes Up With Way to Try to Prevent Hospital Mistakes

Aired June 19, 2002 - 08:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've all heard the horror stories: hospital patients who died or lost limbs because of medical mistakes. A report in 1999 showed that hospital mistakes killed 44,000-98,000 patients a year. But since then, one doctor has come up with a way to try to prevent those mistakes.

Hello, doctor. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us now for his health call report this morning from Atlanta. Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Yes, it's exactly -- That Institute of Medicine report that you mentioned was pretty scary: 44,000-98,000 deaths. And there's been all sorts of things being done about it. One of the things I'm going to show you right off the top is a web site that we actually found when we were looking about this, called SurgiGuard. And these are actually decals that patients can buy, and they put them on their limbs that they don't want to have cut off, and they put it on the side of the head that they don't want to have operated. Certainly an extreme measure, maybe a little funny, even, but perhaps not that funny, in light of how many medical errors do occur.

Let me give you a few examples, just three, of how these medical errors do occur. One is just looking at medications. Look at these three: Cerebryx, Celebrex and Celexa. Cerebryx is actually a seizure medication, Celebrex an arthritis medication, and Celexa is a medication for depression. Three very similar names, three very different purposes.

Another example is something nurses and doctors sort of call "death by decimals." And it's actually when they get a medication that, for example, requires 10.0 milligrams, and by accident someone was given 100.0 milligrams. They get one decimal point off, and that could be an error in just simple calculation, but could have severe consequences.

Something else, Daryn, that you've been mentioning as well, just the fatigue of residents and the subsequent lack of judgment, or errors in judgment because of that. We have a couple of quotes from residents who actually were so tired. One said, "...when you feel that your own patients have become the enemy. By enemy, I mean the one thing that stands between you and a few hours of sleep. -- internal medical resident." This clearly is someone who could possibly make errors. This person wants to get sleep more than they want to take care of the patients. Another quote: "Practically every surgical resident I know [...] has fallen asleep at the wheel driving home from work." One of them even hit a Jersey barrier going 65 mph. So clearly some problems, not only for the patients, but also for the doctors themselves in terms of fatigue, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, on that residence issue, there's been a lot of talk about it over the years, and there are changes coming, aren't there, Sanjay? It's going to be different from when you were a resident putting in all your hours.

GUPTA: That's right. There are some significant changes. I finished my residency a few years ago. A hundred hours a week, 110 hours a week was not uncommon. People are saying, that's just not safe. In fact, they say that if you work more than 24 hours in a row, your technical skills are similar to someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1. Specifically, they're saying no more than 80 hours a week, no more than 24 hours in a row, 10 hours off between shifts, one day a week off, for sure. And they're going to put some force behind these regulations now, as well. This is the accreditation council for hospitals. If hospitals don't abide by this, they stand to lose their accreditation and not be able to take care of patients or to train doctors. So some pretty serious consequences if those rules aren't met.

KAGAN: It's interesting to see the changes are finally coming after so many years of people complaining about it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta. Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Good seeing you.

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