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Science Forum Index » Medicine - Nursing Forum » Incorrect medical records
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| Guest |
 Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:54 am |
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How often do doctors put incorrect information in medical records?
Last February my father passed away in a hospital. Out of curiosity,
recently I obtained his medical records from the hospital.
The emergency room doctor who saw my father on 2-21-06, wrote in his
records that my father had a prosthetic foot and prostate cancer, along
with other problems.
I called his doctor and it was confirmed a prosthetic foot is indeed a
fake foot. I thought maybe there was more than one definition. My
father DID NOT have an artificial foot. In his 90 years he never had
surgery of any kind. His doctor is puzzled why the emergency room
doctor wrote that my father had a prosthetic foot.
His doctor is equally puzzled why the emergency room doctor wrote that
my father had prostate cancer. Just last summer a urologist examined my
father and found he had an enlarged prostate, but no cancer.
When errors such as this are found, it makes a person wonder what other
errors were made.
My father didn't trust doctors and I'm beginning to think he was right. |
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| Andrew Heenan |
| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:18 am |
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<lps3@webtv.net> wrote ...
Quote: My father didn't trust doctors and I'm beginning to think he was right.
Wow!
You are willing to write off a whole profession over one error?
Maybe you believe the Doc made that all up to frame your dad for killing
Kennedy?
Here's a piece of advice that will make you feel much, much better:
Don't ever go see a doctor, however ill or in pain you are.
They are all human beings, and unlike you, they may make mistakes.
Not all the time (or someone else might have noticed). But it happens.
Notes get misfiled in other patients notes occasionally during really busy
periods, for example.
It ain't right - I'm not defending sloppy practice.
Neither am I dismissing the whole profession on the basis of one error.
I guess you never made a mistake?
--
Andrew |
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| Mortimer Schnerd, RN |
| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:13 am |
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Andrew Heenan wrote:
Quote: It ain't right - I'm not defending sloppy practice.
Neither am I dismissing the whole profession on the basis of one error.
I guess you never made a mistake?
I thought I did once. Turns out thought that I was wrong.
--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com |
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| Norminn |
| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:32 am |
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lps3@webtv.net wrote:
Quote: How often do doctors put incorrect information in medical records?
Last February my father passed away in a hospital. Out of curiosity,
recently I obtained his medical records from the hospital.
The emergency room doctor who saw my father on 2-21-06, wrote in his
records that my father had a prosthetic foot and prostate cancer, along
with other problems.
I called his doctor and it was confirmed a prosthetic foot is indeed a
fake foot. I thought maybe there was more than one definition. My
father DID NOT have an artificial foot. In his 90 years he never had
surgery of any kind. His doctor is puzzled why the emergency room
doctor wrote that my father had a prosthetic foot.
His doctor is equally puzzled why the emergency room doctor wrote that
my father had prostate cancer. Just last summer a urologist examined my
father and found he had an enlarged prostate, but no cancer.
When errors such as this are found, it makes a person wonder what other
errors were made.
My father didn't trust doctors and I'm beginning to think he was right.
This was a handwritten record? A busy ER doc could easily grab the
wrong chart. If your father was admitted to the hospital, and others
read the note (as they should have) it should have been corrected.
If you feel correction should be made, write a letter to the medical
records department at the hospital and ask that it be included in your
father's chart.
If it was a dictated record, the error is more understandable. It can
be the right record but entered for the wrong patient. Transcription
error due to a number of problems, including foreign accents or rushed
dictation, etc.
I hope your dad received good care. |
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| Guest |
| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:42 pm |
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Andrew Heenan wrote:> <lps3@webtv.net> wrote ...> > My father didn't
trust doctors and I'm beginning to think he was right.> > > Wow!> > You
are willing to write off a whole profession over one error?> Maybe you
believe the Doc made that all up to frame your dad for killing >
Kennedy?> > Here's a piece of advice that will make you feel much, much
better:> > Don't ever go see a doctor, however ill or in pain you are.>
They are all human beings, and unlike you, they may make mistakes.> Not
all the time (or someone else might have noticed). But it happens.>
Notes get misfiled in other patients notes occasionally during really
busy > periods, for example.> > It ain't right - I'm not defending
sloppy practice.> Neither am I dismissing the whole profession on the
basis of one error.> > I guess you never made a mistake?> -- > >
AndrewWhen it comes to business, no I have never made a mistake. For
years I had a federal firearms license to allow me to do gunsmithing.
Not one mistake was made in the required record keeping. The BATF
(Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms) frowns on sloppy records.
Guess the medical profession isn't as fussy.And no, I never made one
error when working on somebody's firearm. Handguns, rifles, or
shotguns. From single shot to semi-auto. Not one mistake. As far as
doctors, the errors were not limited to the one I mentioned. I just
thought I'd mention the most recent error. I can go back about 25 years
and list many of the errors if you would like. Trouble is it would take
several pages. It began in the early 80's when a doctor wanted my
father to get an angiogram. I guess that's what it's called when a
catheter is run up through an artery. My father was told if he wanted
to live longer than another two years he must have that done. My father
refused. That two years turned into over 25 years of healty life. It
wasn't until the past 4 years that problems began to pop up.Three years
ago my father fell on the ice and hurt his shoulder. The emergency room
doctor ordered shoulder and chest x-rays. He told my father, and me
that my father had asbestoses. The shoulder wasn't broken, just
bruised. Two days later on a follow-up at his doctor's office, I asked
the doctor about the asbestoses. He checked the records he had from the
hospital and said there was nothing about that in the records and that
he doubted my father had asbestoses. So far, in the hospital records I
have found 3 documents, one signed by an emergency room doctor and two
signed by different radiologists stating my father had lung damage
caused by asbestos exposure. So, who is to be believed?This is just the
beginning. I could go on and on about errors, conflicting statements
between doctors, etc. for my father and mother over the past few years,
and myself. I could include my friends and other family members, but it
would only be what they told me, and not what I have first hand
knowledge of. Unless you live with you're head buried in the sand,
you must have heard all the news stories about the 100,000 or so
patients who die every year because of medical mistakes. Sure doctors
are human, but that doesn't excuse their mistakes. |
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| editor@netpath.net |
| Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:20 pm |
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lps3@webtv.net wrote:
Quote: How often do doctors put incorrect information in medical records?
If it's anything like credit records, the chance of that skyrocket
if a parent names his son "Jr." Credit records almost as a norm have a
real mess when Dad named his kid "Jr." and one of them has terrible
bill-paying habits while the other pays on time. It's particularly
normal in the many cases where creditors don't put Social Security
numbers on the information they report to credit bureaus.
I suspect it's also even more likely if patient is an illegal alien
- as use of both aliases and fake Social Security numbers and driver
licenses is the norm among them.
No $4 to park! No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com |
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| sarabellum17 |
| Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:55 pm |
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It is hard to anylize this situation because we don't have all the
facts. We don't know why the ER Doctor wrote those things. Did he grab
the wrong chart? Was the ER busy at that time? Maybe somebody handed
the wrong chart to the ER Doctor?
However, what we do know is that incorrect information was documented
in this patients chart. I guess the next step would be to correct the
mistake by either writing a letter to the ER department or the hospital
board of that particular ER. I think it wrong to condem the entire
medical profession for one ER Doctor's mistake. There are many
dedicated doctors who take the time to document correct information and
it would be unfair to them if they were distrusted by one persons
mistake. At the same time, it is important that the mistake is
corrected timely, so that action can be taken to prevent such a
situation from occuring again. I think all your comments are valid.
Ignoring the mistake should not be an option, but neither should
condeming the entire health professsion as well. |
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| editor@netpath.net |
| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:53 am |
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sarabellum17 wrote:
Quote: It is hard to anylize this situation because we don't have all the
facts. We don't know why the ER Doctor wrote those things. Did he grab
the wrong chart? Was the ER busy at that time? Maybe somebody handed
the wrong chart to the ER Doctor?
20 minutes ago, I listened to two local guys on local ham radio talk
about teaching at area community college. One told the other that
"Hispanic" - which here means illegal alien or under-18 kid of one -
students ROUTINELY enroll under different Social Security numbers from
semester to semester. Anyone see how similar in local emergency room
is just as likely?
No $4 to park! No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com |
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