The lawyers at Cappolino, Dodd & Krebs (experienced birth trauma and head injury attorneys) know how news of horrific medical mistakes by doctors and hospital staff can be found everywhere from newspapers and magazines to television and internet.

Even one story of a surgery gone awry can be enough to scare a patient out of a necessary procedure. However, there are steps that you can take to minimize your risk of wrong-site surgery and other avoidable blunders. Nick Avgerinos of InjuryBoard.com lists on his blog 5 tips for avoiding medical mistakes.

1. Check the experience of your doctor and hospital
Ask your doctor how many times they have done this procedure, and compare with other doctors. You can visit http://www.leapfroggroup.org/ to find hospitals ranked by specialty.

2. Tell everyone who you are and what procedure you’re having done
Avgerinos suggests you tell all doctors, nurses and other hospital staffers your name, date of birth, and procedure to prevent a confused hospital official from giving you the wrong medical chart.

3. Have your doctor initial your surgical site
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons asks its members to literally sign their initials on the surgical site before the operation to prevent wrong-site surgeries. This is a great tip for patients undergoing orthopedic surgery and other procedures where the reason for the operation is not visible on the surface.

4. Confirm the surgical site immediately before the surgery
Just to be safe, make sure that your surgeon knows the correct site before you enter the operating room.

5. Bring a trained proxy
Since you will likely be asleep during and just after your surgery, bring a friend or family member with you who understands your procedure and knows all of your personal information. They can help you check the initials on your surgical site, and answer any questions, and contact your surgeon or primary physician if necessary.

With our health care system overloaded and our doctors overworked, medical professionals need all the help they can get. You can use the five tips listed above to decrease your chances of wrong-site surgery and other medical mistakes.

If all else fails, remember that there are medical malpractice lawyers out there to help you seek the compensation you deserve.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Safety, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.