Perhaps now doctors will start reporting medical errors.

Recently Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital has released statistics saying that reporting medical errors made during patient care has reduced the occurrence of errors by as much as 50%. Health care officials are using these encouraging numbers to work towards the creation of a province wide registry of medical errors. It is my personal hope that every province (for selfish reasons particularly my own) adopts a similar registry system. Canada isn’t the first country to be suggesting that fixing mistakes might be more effective than covering them up. For years physicians and patients have been working towards full-disclosure policies in the US and the UK.

Understandably this presents an interesting problem for many people. Encouraging numbers may finally be the salve for doctors worried about malpractice litigation and the general public not really wanting to know how frequently our health care professionals mess up.

As someone who was the victim of a medical mistake once I am in full support of full disclosure and more than that, mandatory registries of any and all medical errors. In my case the mistake that was made caused me to live for almost two years with an untreated torn ACL tendon in my knee before I finally found another doctor who took the time to find the problem. My own story is nothing compared to patients who have lost their lives or paid dearly in other ways for medication mix-ups or surgery mishaps. Medical professionals are people, and as scary as that realization may be they make mistakes and often after one mistake they again make the mistake of not reporting the first mishap in a voluntary system. It’s just not quite cutting it. It certainly is understandable as admitting to mistakes that may have endangered a patients life is a scary thing for a doctor worried about losing patients, or even their career.
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