December 19, 2016
Interview with Leslie Michelson, author of the book The Patient’s Playbook
Mike Carruthers:
Even though we have the best healthcare available than anywhere on the planet…
Leslie Michelson:
Preventable medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States right behind heart disease and cancer.
Leslie Michelson, author of the book The Patient’s Playbook, says you have to become involved and become a partner in your own healthcare.
So for example; if you’re an inpatient in a hospital the data show has a medication error a day. Most not significant but some of them are. So what I encourage people to do if they’re an inpatient is to have somebody with them. Who will review their chart to make sure that everything on it is accurate.
And Leslie says he sees this frequently…
We saw this just the other day with a patient of ours who was in the hospital had an allergy to penicillin and was about to be given a significant dose of penicillin. Which would have triggered a very substantial allergic reaction. And the patient’s advocate was with her and said, “Wait a minute my mother’s allergic to penicillin. You’ve got to give her a different antibiotic”.
It’s important to understand that medicine is a service business.
If you talk to people who are lawyers, accountants, strategic planners, advertisers – people that provide services. They will tell you that they can provide a higher level of service if they have a more engaged client. And that’s what I’m suggesting people do with their physicians – become engaged.
