ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTHCARE MAY PREVENT MISTAKES

Medical mistakes occurring in hospitals account for an estimated 98,000 deaths each year, according to the Institute of Medicine. Research shows that consumers who get more involved with their healthcare can greatly improve the safety of their care, but patients are generally unaware of what to do to help prevent medical mistakes. In order to improve the safe delivery of healthcare and reduce medical mistakes, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has partnered with the Advertising Council and created a national public service advertising campaign that encourages consumers to take a more proactive role in their healthcare.

"Questions Are the Answer: Get More Involved With Your Health Care" calls on patients and caregivers to become more active in their healthcare by asking questions. The public can call 800/931-AHRQ or visit www.ahrq.gov/questionsaretheanswer to obtain tips on how to help prevent medical mistakes and become a partner in their healthcare.

"We hope that these new public service advertisements will show millions of Americans that they shouldn't be afraid to ask questions related to their healthcare and that their clinicians are in-terested in answering them," says AHRQ director Carolyn Clancy.

HOSPITALS ACT TO AVOID MIX-UPS OVER COLORED WRISTBANDS

Hospitals have widely adopted color-coded wristbands to alert staffers to critical information about patients in recent years. But with no standard guidelines designating specific meanings for each color, the wristbands designed to protect patients are actually increasing the risk of harm, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. The April 4, 2007, article says the use of wrist-bands is endangering and confusing nurses and doctors. As a result, a number of hospitals around the country have formed groups to standardize color designations in their states and regions to address the confusion. Hospitals are limiting the number of colors and bands and taking steps to ensure that labels and stickers used in patients' medical records correspond with the colors and meanings used on the wristbands, says the Journal.

The story also reports that hospitals are purchasing bands with pre-printed messages to reinforce the meanings—such as "allergy" or "fall risk"—and asking both patients and staffers to remove any colored charity or social-cause bracelets that might add to the confusion. Hospitals have long tagged patients admitted to a hospital with a standard-issue clear or white wristband with identifying data such as the patient's name and birth date. More recently, some have added bar codes that can be scanned to verify identity and check medications, but the majority of hospitals have yet to invest in such technology. For them, color-coded wristbands can provide an extra safety net, says the Wall Street Journal article.

As a part of the program, hospitals are taking steps to alert local communities and educate patients about the new wristband standards: explaining the meaning of different colors at admis-sion, emphasizing the importance of wearing wristbands during their stay, and pointing out the risks associated with wearing their own personal wristbands. While the hospitals provide refusal forms to patients who don't want to wear color-coded bracelets or take off their own social-cause bracelets, hospitals in the various state programs say they haven't had a problem with patient refusals.

HOW MUCH DO ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS EARN?

Want to know how much athletic trainers make? What about radiographers? Or music therapists? You can visit the American Medical Association's online salary table to find out salary information on these and more than 65 allied health professions. Visit www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6038.html.

SIDE EFFECTS FROM MEDS COST PATIENTS IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

In 2004, 1.2 million hospitalized patients experrienced an adverse drug event, and 90 percent of these events were due to a side effect from a medication that was properly administered, according to the latest "News and Numbers" from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The agency also found that just 9 percent of adverse drug events among hospitalized patients were because they were given the wrong drug or the wrong dose in the hospital, or because they accidentally took an overdose or the wrong drug before entering the hospital.

Average total hospital costs for patients who experienced drug side effects or other adverse drug events were $10,100, compared with an average cost of $7,600 for patients who didn't expe-rience adverse drug events. The top three types of drugs involved in adverse drug events were corticosteroids, blood thinners and anti-cancer drugs, mostly due to side effects when properly administered.