Patient Dilemma
It can appear as a big problem that doctors cannot make the right diagnosis for an illness. Added to the stress of carrying the burden of their illness and the general feelings of pain and discomfort due to being sick, the patient also will experience the lingering feelings of doubt and weary because of not knowing the exact reason for his/her feeling that way. Other times, because of the lack of knowledge and frustration from the idiopathic disease, doctors might not take in a patient for assessment. These are real medical situations that cannot be avoided nor prevented.
If this were to happen to me, I would certainly feel wary of my condition and would be depressed over the outcome of my physician check-up. Given this situation, first of all, I should not lose hope over the idea that no doctor I had been to were able to diagnose my illness or that some others had rejected me. Instead, I will go and find other doctor, and another, from recommendations of family and friends, or from advices of random people. To me, any chance for a glimpse of hope is definitely welcome.
While doing this, with the help of the internet and resources, I would try to find out for my own the possible cause of my illness. This can be done through listing of possible signs and symptoms I was feeling for the day. Anything out of the ordinary should be recorded and can be reported to the physician. Major symptoms such as bleeding, extreme migraine, or syncope can become the center of the search. Once all possible diseases are listed down, a trial & error by matching the other symptoms of the disease/s from my own can be done to shorten the list.
I would definitely expect that searching for the elusive disease on my own will be difficult. In the meantime, because there are still the symptoms I was feeling, I would try and alleviate them especially those that caused me much discomfort. A physician can be consulted.
Doctor Dilemma
There is a saying that nobody’s perfect, but when it comes to health care, all measures are always undertaken to ensure that less, if not none at all, mistakes are committed because the patient’s life is in jeopardy. Hospital errors range from simple prescriptions to complex surgery.
As a hospital administrator trying to lessen the number of errors committed in the surgical room, I would first consult medical literatures and try to find plans that are tried and tested in other hospitals, such as a study made by Hubert & Garrett in 2009 (PSSJournal.com). I would study the literatures and combine the recommended strategies on which would fit the hospital I’m working at.
Definitely going back to basics, I would ensure that the main character of the situation is given due notice, that is the doctor performing the surgery. In order to lessen mistakes, steps must be taken to ensure doctors have proper knowledge of the surgery they will be doing. Trainings & specializations must be employed and required of them. Peer to peer mentoring is also a personal and thus effective way of transferring knowledge and skills.
Another method could be to ensure that documentation is properly practiced for each surgery so that procedures can be tracked down. Patients should also be properly informed of the medical procedure to be done to lessen fears brought by the operation. It is important that bought the patient and the doctor are given due attention for such delicate health care procedures.
Works Cited
Hurlbert, Scott N., Garrett, Jill. “Improving operating room safety”. Patient Safety in Surgery 3.25 (2009): n. pag. Web. 7 March 2013.
