Word: patients
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...break your bones - but if you need surgery, the right words used in the operating room can be more powerful than many drugs. New research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine found that when surgical teams heeded a simple checklist - as pilots do before takeoff - patient-mortality rates were cut nearly in half and complications fell by more than a third...
...checklist comprised 19 items to be carried out throughout surgery: seven before anesthesia is administered, seven just before the first incision and the rest before the patient leaves the operating room. The study focused on six checklist items, all involving basic safety issues, such as whether the identity of the patient, site and type of surgery were confirmed correctly, whether enough blood was readily available in case of excess bleeding and whether all the sponges used in surgery were accounted for after the procedure. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs...
However, in one case where he was preparing to remove an adrenal tumor, the anesthesiologist realized during the checklist rundown that extra blood might be required but was not on hand. The blood was delivered to the OR - and the patient did need it during surgery. "I'm convinced that the fact that the anesthesiologist caught that was what saved this man's life," Gawande says, adding that his team averts at least one potential problem via the checklist every week...
Gawande and Pronovost agree that checklists can be faulty and that they need to be studied carefully before and during implementation. "Safety should be a patient's right," says Pronovost. "If you are going to ask doctors to give up their autonomy and accept these standards, they have to be based on sound science and implemented wisely...
...should be noted that there was, and is, no evidence that these techniques actually work. Experienced military and FBI interrogators believe that torture leads, more often than not, to fabricated confessions. Patient, persistent questioning using subtle psychological carrots and sticks is the surest way to get actionable information. But prisoners held by the U.S. were tortured - first at Guantánamo Bay and later in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Armed Services Committee report details the techniques used on one prisoner: "Military working dogs had been used against [Mohammed al-] Khatani. He had also been deprived of adequate sleep for weeks...