Commonwealth Study of Flawed U.S. Health Care System Mirrors Personal Experiences

According to a recent study by The Commonwealth Fund , the United States not only has the costliest health care system in the world but one that ranks far below six other countries when it comes to critical areas of medical treatment and outcomes. Those six countries are Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

United States health care system has gotten low rankings for several years

This isn't the first year where the U.S. received low rankings. It happened in 2004, 2006 and 2007 as well. We fall short when it comes to chronic care management and safe, coordinated care. More people in the United States go without health care because of the cost. When people get sick in the U.S., they are far more likely to go to the emergency room because a regular doctor wasn't available first. I've been in that situation myself, not because of a lack of insurance but simply because seeing doctors in express care centers after hours didn't provide enough information to make a clear diagnosis.

People with below average incomes go without treatment in U.S - but not in other countries

Those individuals who have a below average income in other countries can still get treated without visiting the emergency room - at least, far more often than in the United States. But nearly half of those with a low income in our country do not get medical care. The reason? They simply can't afford it. Perhaps most shockingly, this country doesn't even score well when it comes to promoting long and healthy lives.

Personal experiences with the U.S. health care system have made me wary

But studies go only so far. My own personal experiences have shaken my trust in our health care system - in spite of being fully insured. In the last 10 years, I've been treated at different hospitals, all supposedly among the best. In one instance, when I suddenly felt quite ill and went to the emergency room, I was given an IV ( intravenous) needle in case test results indicated that I'd need medication. When tests showed nothing major, I was given after care instructions and told I could go home.

A hospital medical error leaves me shaken

I was groggy but assumed the nurse took out the IV, bandages my arm and signed a release form. When I checked my paperwork, there was a check mark in the box which noted that the IV had been removed as well as a signature below that. So I left the hospital. When I got home and removed the bandages, two needles were still in my arm. It was 4 a.m and I was exhausted so I took out the needles myself and put them in a metal box (maybe not the smartest move but I was tired and cranky). I called the hospital but was told to call back the next day during regular business hours.

The result? When I told the hospital what had happened, they "negotiated" my hospital bill and gave me a small reduction. Okay, that's incident one. No harm, no foul, except for the eerie sense of unreality I felt when I saw those needles still in my arm. But it was a relatively minor medical mistake - all things considered.

Medical errors in U.S. hospitals affected other family members

Incident two? I took my aunt to a hospital late at night, after a freak accident where she fell and hit her head against her dishwasher. She'd simply slipped in her kitchen, something that could happen to anyone. She called me, not only frightened but in terrible pain. I rushed her to the emergency room. Before the doctors completed their exam, I asked if she could have a broken neck. They took x-rays. They found nothing.

A relative's broken neck went undetected at one hospital

After two more days of increasing pain, I took her to yet another hospital. Even as the x-rays were being read and before the doctors returned, a medical worker ran down the hall,yelling for us not to move my aunt. Her neck was indeed broken.

After immediate surgery, she was put into a contraption that looked like something out of Frankenstein movie, one that kept her from moving her neck for weeks. In spite of being in bed for two days before getting the right diagnosis, she considered herself lucky- and she certainly was. If she'd moved her neck the wrong way before surgery, she could potentially have been paralyzed or died.

Other medical errors raised more questions

Incidents, three, four and far too many to count? I've lost track of the number of times I've gone to the pharmacy to pick up some routine medicine, counted the pills before I drove home, and found that I either had way too many pills or far less than the prescribed amount. This happened in spite of the fact that the pills were supposed to be routinely counted twice before they went in the pill bottles.

U.S. health care mistakes affect celebs like Dennis Quaid as well as the average person

I don't think that those incidents were just coincidences or that my aunt and I are in a rare group affected by medical mistakes. In fact, I know we're not. I also know that errors affect both celebrities and the so-called average person alike.

In 2006, three babies in Indianapolis died after being given heparin dosages 1000 times the normal amount. It turned out that the bottles which contained normal dosages for an adult looked eerily similar to those which contained infant dosages. A veteran technician actually made the mistake of delivering the wrong amount of medication to the neonatal unit.

Indianapolis infant deaths in 2006 caused by same error that affected Dennis Quaid's twins

In spite of the tragic deaths of those three infants, in 2007 Dennis Quaid and his wife had the exact same thing happen to their twin babies, not in Indianapolis but in Cedar-Sinai Medical Hospital in Los Angeles. None other than Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a prominent spokesman on medical issues, called this "death by decimal point" and suggested that a back-up system needed to be in place to avoid human error. I wonder why that system wasn't in place within a year of the deaths of those three infants in Indianapolis.

Quality and costs of U.S. health care affected by medical errors and other factors

I also can't help wondering how much every error adds to the tab we are all paying for health insurance. Pharmaceutical errors cost money. Taking my aunt to two different hospitals costs money. Having needles left in my arm actually allowed me to have a small discount on my hospital bill but left me shaken and wondering what other types of errors happen - and how often.

I simply don't believe that the medical errors which affected me and my family are isolated incidents. My trust in our health care system has been shaken even more by the recent Commonwealth study. Will significant and worthwhile health care reforms be allowed to pass in time to improve the lives of all of us - and of our children? Can we raise our health care ranking so that we are among the best when compared to other countries?

At the very least, I'm hoping that medical errors caused by a lack of back-up systems can be reduced. No one should have to watch their infants die because of preventable medical errors. No one should have to lie in bed for two days with a broken neck that wasn't detected. Mistakes like these all of us money, on top of a health care system already burdened by other flaws.

Third Baby Dies After Error at Indiana Hospital, USA Today, 9/20/2006, here
Don't be a Victim of "Death by Decimal Point":the Dennis Quaid Tragedy, Associated Content, Nov.22, 2007, here
U.S Health-care System: Still Bad, Washington Post, June 23, 2010 here