Medical Error Patient Health Restoration and Protection Act
I want to start this post saying that I AM grateful for all of the good care that I have received over the years. Positive outcomes outweigh bad outcomes, BUT, permanent damage has happened to my body, mind and spirit as a result of medical injury. This cannot be ignored. A nurse is on trial for killing a patient because she was distracted, and gave the wrong medication. A nurse running to her side defended her saying that mistakes happen "every day" and that nobody would be a nurse if they weren't allowed to make mistakes. I don't agree at all with her attitude or her statement.
Would you buy a car from a factory where the workers said they make mistakes every day and that they are "ok" with it? NO! I can choose to buy a different car but I cannot choose to receive an alternative healthcare delivery method, I can't.
Medical errors have been swept under the rug for decades upon decades. A time of reckoning is upon this vital human service industry. Medical errors are like a cancer festering amongst the students, providers, patients and executives within the healthcare system. There is NO current patient pathway for restoration and NO pathway for restitution and correction for providers committing medical mistakes.
Medical mistakes or errors ARE an abuse against a patient when they continue to happen without any effort to remedy and avert the problem. People die or become permanently injured as a result. In order to fix a problem one must first acknowledge and APOLOGIZE. The ultimate goal of this ACT is not just patient and provider healing, but forgiveness.
I have felt like the poster child of medical errors since 2008. I have almost died several times and to this day regularly battle mistakes in health care delivery. This has tried my forgiving heart on an unbelievable level and my body is permanently damaged as a result of these errors. I have forgiven, but it takes a toll on me and everyone involved. I speak out and I say that I was injured, and nobody likes it.
The Healthcare Industry and teaching models need to change their attitude about patient care mistakes. Of course it's true that some mistakes (errors in the sensory system/perception of the problem at hand) will always be present because we are humans. What is NOT ok are errors in judgement or willful disregard for protocols designed to protect patients from injury. The system needs to change so that providers are Not Distracted. t
The healthcare providers are the only people who know what they need to stop this madness from continuing to happen. Not board members, not executives, not money managers and profit margin hawks, not the professors...but the workers. They need to be empowered to do a good, not good, but excellent job! People have been killed or permanently damaged because of this cancerous sore that has festered and grown to a point it may actually kill the healthcare delivery system we know today. Today is the day for change, not tomorrow!
Healthcare workers need to stand UP FOR their patients!!!!!!!! Patients are not the enemy! Workers need to stand UP to the SYSTEM that creates this toxic patient healthcare delivery environment and fight for what the patients need! They need to "be the change" because when their colleagues make mistakes, especially those that cause permanent damage or sadly kill, they are also effected. Everyone is touched by these errors. When patients are placed first everyone wins!
God's Grace has kept me alive and this is my time to speak up on behalf of all patients who are abused within the medical community. It's time to stop sweeping medical errors under the rug! Starting today each and every health care worker can make a choice to double check their assignments. They can do that. It starts with them. I have suffered so much spiritual, physical and emotional pain from medical injuries that I dare say I can bear no more! This is my time to speak out!
May God grant mercy upon those workers who are struggling to provide care to their patients and may He console and heal the bodies, minds and soul of the victims.
Essentials of Medical Error Patient Health Restoration and Protection Act (MEPHRPA) by Denise Archuleta:
- Acknowledge the error has occurred. Acknowledging the error is essential for without this step, there is no healing.
- Apologize for the error.
- Thoroughly investigate all tasks and steps leading up to the execution of the error.
- Fix the problem: Policies, Procedures, Training, Change quotas, increase staff to patient ratio, anonymous treatment/diagnostic service delivery, etc.. Treat this seriously! When one provider errors all providers suffer! Patients suffer the ultimate price.
- Acknowledge that providers committing errors could potentially be seen as an "abuser" by the patient, do not overlook this and address this with a sincere remedy to help the victim.
- Provide free medical, psychological, rehabilitative, medicinal, alternative, spiritual and vocational services to the victim in effort to restore patient to pre-injury status.
- Do not under any circumstances force patient to be treated by the abusing provider again. That provider needs to heal, but let them accomplish that in another way.
- All medical record documentation, including provider to provider notes are copied and issued to the patient.
- Patient agrees not to initiate lawsuit (unless a crime is suspected).
- Psychological intervention and spiritual intervention are essential to mitigate emotional and spiritual damage from the abusive act (medical error) so they can restore personal well-being and find forgiveness in their hearts.
- Under no circumstances is a patient to be secondarily mistreated, retaliated against, avoided, abandoned, cancelled, shunned, gossiped about or be subjected to any unprofessional medical care or service as a result of being already victimized and abused by a medical or health care provider. The patient is not the enemy.
- For tragic errors resulting in death or permanent partial or total disability, Congress will allocate a MEPHRPA FUND to to grant victims and loved ones some reparation for their grievous losses.
- This FUND will be supported by medical providers, medical provider networks, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies and the AMA membership dues.
- Health providers committing medical errors are free from prosecution and MUST be offered a safe haven to disclose and remedy their errors.
- Healthcare workers must be protected from peer scorn and internal persecution as they embark upon the path to their occupational and personal recovery.
- Medical Error Recovery Centers need to be established to treat patients and healthcare workers where substantial damage has occurred.
- "Medical Error Victim" needs to be a recognized as a bonafide medical and psychological diagnosis. It needs to be treated just like any other form of abuse and recognized as such.
