The World Health Organization has announced the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2024 (September 17) as “Improving diagnosis for patient safety.” World Patient Safety Day is the cornerstone of action to promote global health and safety. It is firmly grounded in the fundamental principle of medicine, “first do no harm.”
To improve diagnostic safety, the main objective for patients and families is to actively engage with health workers and healthcare leaders to improve diagnostic processes.
Here’s what you can do:
Understand and engage in the diagnostic journey.
Ensure you understand the diagnostic process, including the steps that you and your healthcare team will take to determine your diagnosis.
Engage actively with your healthcare team by sharing accurate and comprehensive information about your symptoms and medical history from the start.
Prompt your healthcare team to think comprehensively about alternative diagnoses, such as by asking “What else could it be?”
Ask about the purpose, potential risks, alternatives, and follow-up steps of any recommended diagnostic interventions.
Keep track of your health, symptoms, medical visits, and treatments.
Be informed about the expected progression of your illness, potential danger signs, and how to access care if your condition either does not improve or worsens.
Adhere to prescribed treatment plans and attend follow-up appointments.
Ensure continuity, accuracy, and validity of information.
Ask your healthcare team for information and use reliable medical information sources.
Follow up on the results of your diagnostic tests and proactively ask for the report; no news is not always good news.
Don’t be afraid to seek a second opinion if you have any doubts or uncertainties about the initial diagnosis.
Regularly check your health records to ensure that all information is documented, accurate, and up to date.
Speak up with concerns about your diagnosis and care.
Raise any concerns you may have about your diagnosis or the diagnostic process.
An estrogen patch automatically releases the proper dose of medicine over a defined period of time, usually several days. However, women should know that sunbathing with a patch on may speed up how much medicine enters the body. For example, one woman experienced hot flashes after several days of sunbathing while wearing Climara, a once-a-week estrogen (estradiol) patch.
Mix-Ups Between Five Different Inhalers that All Include “Ellipta” as Part of Their Brand Names
The name of a unique inhaler device included in five different brand name medicines has led to multiple mix-ups, not only by consumers but by doctors, pharmacists, and nurses as well. In 2013, the global drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, introduced Ellipta, a new type of inhaler device. It is circular in shape, about the size of a hockey puck, and can combine several different medicines together. The company has packaged combinations of one, two, or three of the medicines listed below using this unique inhaler device:
Most people realize human error can happen, including when getting a prescription filled at the pharmacy. Although pharmacists do their best, mistakes sometimes happen. Thanks to safer medicine labels and technologies like barcode scanning, mistakes of the past are rapidly declining. The few pharmacy errors that do slip by usually do not cause serious or permanent harm. Still, that’s little consolation to a consumer who is harmed or could have been harmed if a more serious error had happened.