In a DP: Hooked up to any medical device or monitor

[grawp]

The following gave me a major case of the willies just now, viz:


http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=13066

My favorite line from the article:

your IV pump is infected, but don't worry, it can't infect any of the *other* patient equipment ...

Sheesh!

[gnaruki]

Last time I was in the ER the charts got switched. I'm sitting there with a catheter in my arm thinking what the fuck is going on here. Then some nurse walks in and goes, hmmm, you aren't a middle aged woman are you?

Thankfuily that mistake got caught before they started putting stuff in me.

[Fansy]

Last time I was in the ER the charts got switched. I'm sitting there with a catheter in my arm thinking what the fuck is going on here. Then some nurse walks in and goes, hmmm, you aren't a middle aged woman are you?

lol so at first glance she still had some doubts eh? hittin a gym gets rid of early-onset manboobs. also, try wearing less lipstick.

[Texas Carnie Roadshow]

It's not so much the devices that worry me, as much as the ass-hats that decide they want to pull out their IV and fight.
Months of Hep-C testing sucks.

Except for the MRI. I tend to have too much metal around to have any desire to go near there.

Last time I was in the ER the charts got switched. I'm sitting there with a catheter in my arm thinking what the fuck is going on here. Then some nurse walks in and goes, hmmm, you aren't a middle aged woman are you?

Thankfuily that mistake got caught before they started putting stuff in me.

They tend to have pretty standard precautions for that where they have to check the wristband and such before giving any medications or going for any tests.
Except that can sometimes defeated by the doctor just saying "give this much of this drug to room 10."

My favorite was when they put the wrong sticker on the toe tag.

[AdventureDoc]

I can honestly say that the number of "medical errors" or "near misses" are much higher than they should be. There are enormous safety checks in place and a great deal of fail-safes but still, the volume of patients and the involvement of humans is the biggest risk factor.

A few concerning things I have personally seen:

-Dialysis fluid that is contaminated with legionella
-Leaky roof tiles above operating beds, dripping into patients on the table
-Sweaty surgeon foreheads dripping into patients
-Patients with documented, known allergies given medications
-Mis-dosed medications given in potentially lethal doses
-Numerous violations of patient medical record privacy by staff members
-the list can go on and on...And these incidents are in large, "ivory tower" facilities in North America.

The most interesting thing I see coming up is medical records privacy. More and more medical records and documents are stored and transferred electronically. The security of these transfers and storage of these documents is the issue.

Also, a great article a few months back looked at overcrowded Emergency Rooms and treating patients in the waiting area due to a lack of beds. Literally, the ED managed a patient with a heart attack in the waiting room. Diagnosed, started treatment and had a nurse with the patient the whole time but....was in plain view of the entire waiting room. A lack of open ED beds was to blame but it raised a lot of interesting problems.

"medicine is the art of distracting the patient while the body heals itself"

[gnaruki]

Voluntary triage has always been good for me. All of my ER visits have been because of needing medical attention that wasn't too pressing. Medical people are so worried about lawsuits and other day-to-day anxieties its good to be calm and work with them. I sat around an ER waiting room once for five hours or so letting people flipping out over kitchen knife cuts and the nth heart attack pass me because all I had was a bleeding head wound from a beer bottle. I was just sitting there with caked blood all over my face reading a magazine, the incoming patients reaction at the sight of me was kinda funny.

Most of the american nightmare stories I know of involve joint surgeries or po'dunk hospitals. My friend is fighting a nasty infection in his knee from an acl surgery last fall.