Dr. HODAD is a hero right now, and what that means for patient safety...
Dr. Marty Makary coined the term "Dr. HODAD" to describe a physician who is the hands of death and destruction, a walking, talking, patient safety time bomb who maims and kills with great frequency.
Well, Dr. HODAD is a hero right now. That doctor no other doctor would want caring for them or their family just got a sign planted in his front yard exclaiming "Thank you," and rightly so. Any clinician who shows up for work under these conditions is going above and beyond the call, which is why I recently suggested a GI Bill of Rights for healthcare professionals and families of healthcare professionals who perish during this crisis. We should be grateful and show our appreciation in a meaningful way. However, we have to keep our eyes on the ball and make sure that the positive and negative pressures which make patient safety a reality don't melt away.
Even before the pandemic, doctors and nurses were viewed favorably by most juries, even when the care was substandard. Now, we have the hero effect. Also, some governors are limiting or waiving liability for clinicians during the pandemic. Finally, many hospital systems are facing a crushing financial blow with the suspension of "elective" surgeries and many other revenue generating services during this crisis. Lack of funding was always a possible excuse for not implementing certain safety advances long before COVID-19 jumbled our lives.
We have to be careful, or many more lives could be lost to medical errors (versus COVID-19). Some defense lawyers may feel more emboldened to try cases -- cases that should be settled and learned from --- with the hero glow still in full effect. Hospital and nursing home administrators along with medical and nursing leaders will need to keep the legal beagles on a tight leash. I am well aware that most physicians hate our liability system, but the PI Bar and the courts provide continual pressure for quality improvement along with implementation of resolution programs like disclosure & apology.
As many of you know, I lost my oldest brother to medical errors that started in the ER. I'll never forget being invited by an ER doc to provide a Sorry Works! presentation at his large Florida hospital. During lunch that day, the ER doc candidly admitted to me that for too long ER physicians and nurses were often dismissive of young people (folks in 40s and 30's) exhibiting chest pain. My ER doc host told me, "We filled cemeteries full of young people, and it was only because we got sued so much did we change our ways. Now, when a young person presents with chest pain we assume the worst and work backwards." He then thanked me for sharing Sorry Works! with his colleagues. We can't lose this pressure or patients, families, and clinicians will pay a horrible price.
Dr. Makary, who shared the story of Dr. HODAD in his terrific book Unaccountable, also wrote the paper that estimated medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Unlike COVID-19, there will be no vaccine for medical errors or magic pill. Medical errors have been maiming and killing for decades, and will do so long after COVID-19 is a distant memory. We cannot lose focus on medical errors nor can we allow a sustained reduction in the positive and negative pressures that thwart medical errors.
Sincerely,
- Doug
Doug Wojcieszak, Founder and President
Sorry Works!
618-559-8168 (direct dial)
doug@sorryworks.net (direct e-mail)