Things Your Hospital Won't Tell You

With more and more complex technologies becoming the forefront of the hospital experience, so is increasing the likelihood that something will go seriously wrong when you're on the operating table, or in a hospital in general.

Mix-ups in medicine occur; people use too much anesthesia; misfortunes and malpractice occur. One could catch one of the super-bugs that are now present in otherwise extremely sanitary environments. Your insurance could be charged too much, or you could pay too much.

According to the Instutite of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, more than 1.5 million (that's 1,500,000 written out.) Americans are harmed each year from being given the wrong medicine. Only 10 percent of hospitals are completely computer-based with a central information base. Without these organizational tools, accidents involving allergies and general misunderstandings are much more likely to occur.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 2 million people each year contract a super-bug that develops in hospital environments, such as MRSA (methyl-resistant staphylococcus aurorus), and about 90,000 end up dying of either the infection itself or of complications. These super-bugs are, in part, to blame for the rising costs of health care. They often result from the overuse of antibiotics, antibiotic soaps, and antibiotic foams. Be sure that before anyone touches an open wound on you or anyone else, that they are wearing sterile gloves. Nowadays, just washing your hands may not be enough.

Often, when you go into surgery, the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether or not all the doctors who are going to be operating on you are covered by your medical insurance. A lot of the time, anesthesiologists, radiologists, and pathologists will not be covered by the same insurance as your other doctors. Try your best to get insurance that will cover as many doctors and services as possible.

It is a surprising fact that, due to clerical errors, most hospitals will charge you more than you needed to be charged. For example, the cost of gloves and gowns might be included twice or three times over through multiple bills. There's not much you can do about this, really, except call your hospital if there's anything on your bill that looks fishy.

Hospitals can be dangerous places, both for the sick, as well as the healthy. Are you safe?