- More than one of five Americans report that they or
a family member had experienced a medical or prescription drug error, according
to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.
Based on respondents' evaluation of these errors, this translates into
an estimated 8.1 million households nationally reporting a medical or prescription
drug error which turned out to be a very serious problem.
The report also reveals many missed opportunities, such as failure to
get preventive services at recommended intervals and substandard care for
chronic conditions, which translate into needless suffering, reduced quality
of life, and higher long-term health care costs.
The report points to many difficulties with patient/physician interactions.
One of four Americans who saw a doctor in the last two years did not follow
the doctor's advice, often because they disagreed with it. One of seven
Americans in fair or poor health reports being dissatisfied with their
care. In addition, one of five adults reports communication problems with
their physicians, such as not understanding information, not feeling they
were listened to, or having questions they did not ask.
"Physicians are taught 'First, do no harm.' Yet the evidence shows
that harm is widespread," said Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth
Fund. "U.S. medicine must commit itself to achieving higher, industry-standard
levels of quality in patient safety, and that goal must extend to all
aspects of medical care, in surgical suites, hospitals and nursing homes,
physicians' offices, and pharmacies."
Room for Improvement: Patients Report on the Quality of Their Health Care,
by Davis and colleagues at the Fund, is based on the Commonwealth Fund
2001 Health Care Quality Survey, which consisted of interviews with 6,722
adults conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates.
Medical Errors May Be More Widespread Than Previously Reported
One of five (22 percent) Americans report that they or a family member
had experienced a medical error of some kind. One of ten adults reported
that they or a family member had gotten sicker as a result of a mistake
in a doctor's office or in the hospital, and about half of those said
the problem was very serious. Of the 16 percent reporting a medication
error, over one-fifth said the error turned out to be a very serious problem.
Nationally, this translates into an estimated 22.8 million people reporting
at least one family member who experienced a mistake, and 8.1 million households
reporting at least one family member had a problem that was serious. This
suggests that the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report To Err Is Human,
which estimated that there are 44,000 to 98,000 deaths annually due to
medical errors, may be just the tip of the iceberg in determining the full
extent of injuries from medical errors.
Preventive and Chronic Care Lacking
The report documents serious underuse of preventive services and inadequate
monitoring of chronic conditions. One of five women (20 percent) over 18
had failed to receive a Pap test in a three-year interval, one-fifth of
adults had not had a cholesterol screening exam in the past five years,
and nearly half (44 percent) of adults had not had an annual dental exam.
The authors note that inadequate outreach and poor follow-up may be the
cause of these low rates of preventive care. Another disturbing finding
points to lack of monitoring of serious health problems. Nearly half (45
percent) of adults with diabetes reported they had not received three recommended
annual checks (eye exam, foot exam, and blood pressure).
Many Physicians Are Not Meeting Patient Expectations
High-quality care means shared understanding between patient and doctor
and an agreed-upon approach to addressing it, but the quality of patient-physician
interactions is disturbingly low for many adults. Low income Americans,
and those with less education, are particularly vulnerable to communication
problems with their doctors. Three of ten (29 percent) of those who did
not complete high school reported having a communication problem with
their doctor, and even more surprising, one of six (17 percent) college
graduates reported a communication problem. While just over half of all
adults (57 percent) found it very easy to understand written materials
from a doctor's office, only two of five (39 percent) adults with less
than a high school education found materials very easy to understand.
Lack of understanding information is just one aspect of the communication
problems that pervade doctor/patient relationships. Lack of agreement also
appears to be a major problem in the health care setting. One of four adults
who had a health care visit in the last two years said there was a time
they did not follow a doctor's advice. Of those, two of five (39 percent)
said the reason was they disagreed with the doctor, one-fourth said the
advice was too costly (27 percent) or too difficult (26 percent) and one-fifth
(20 percent) said the advice was against their personal beliefs. Just seven
percent said they did not follow advice because they did not understand
it.
"A good relationship between doctor and patient characterized by open
and trusting communication is a critical component of high quality health
care," said Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., senior vice president at
the Fund and a co-author of the report. "Physicians need to understand
patients' concerns and circumstances, and patients must feel they have
enough time to ask questions and reach agreement on the best course of
care and treatment."
Part of the problem may be lack of continuity in the health care relationship.
Only one-third (34 percent) of adults in the survey had the same physician
for more than five years.
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- The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting
independent research on health and social issues.
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