CONCERNING QUALITY CONTROL

Quality control is a good thing, especially in healthcare.

For those out there concerned about "medical misadventures" (aka medical mistakes), I have two comments. First, medical errors, although rare, will always happen. Healthcare is not perfect, so don't expect it to be. Second, there are many quality control measures in place within a hospital or clinic setting to ensure medical mistakes don't occur.

Some examples:
- All prescriptions and medications ordered for patients in a hospital are filled through a pharmacist. The pharmacists are trained to pick up on doctors Rx mistakes and are quick to correct the problem. Unfortunately, if a pharmacist makes a mistake in the med they then give or the dosage of that med...good luck.

- All labs are viewed by lab personnel, and if a lab is abnormal, it is usually flagged in the system. Critically abnormal labs (those that need to be dealt with immediately) are called directly to the MD or nurse taking care of the patient.

- All radiology images performed in a hospital or clinic setting (at least for MDs) are looked over by a professional radiologist to ensure nothing small or large was missed by the primary doctor.

Now, read then next entry...