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I was a Boy Scout when I was a kid and through the camping, hiking and first aid, we learned to 'Be Prepared' -- the Scout Motto.  Being prepared in the wilderness is essential to a safe and enjoyable outing.  The same is true for your visit to your healthcare provider.  Navigating the world of healthcare may sometimes make you feel like a Scout without a compass, map or today’s GPS.  

You may remember the ‘buddy system’ from any outing as a kid.  As a Scoutmaster, I would make sure before we started any outing that everyone had a ‘buddy’; someone who they would stay connected to during the hike or swim.  This person would ‘have your back’ just as you were responsible for them; this was mutual support.  

My mother sent along this message from a close friend asking for support for a family member.

“My Aunt Ruth, who basically raised me for long periods of my childhood, went in for a 15 minute knee surgery on Tuesday.  Upon receiving the pre-op antibiotic, she had a rare anaphylactic response and went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.  Currently, she is in the ICU and they are not sure if she will wake up.  Please pray for her recovery.”  

Tragically, incidences of harm related to drug reactions and complications are very common.  Past studies have suggested that one in seven or nearly 15 percent of Americans will suffer an adverse drug event (ADE) during a hospital stay; furthermore, the likelihood of suffering an AD

     No one thing killed Elias Smith. By all accounts, he should still be alive today. For years, he had been suffering with debilitating back pain and had exhausted all of his options.  Except one—surgery. The surgery seemed to proceed without a hitch. It was a Friday and the surgical team was accustomed to Dr. Calhoun working fast, but he really sped through this one.  He had a plane to catch right afterwards with his wife. They were going to visit their daughter who had just had just given birth to their first grandchild. 

     There was one thing, though. The OR circulating nurse noted they had used an abnormally high number of sponges and was alarmed about excessive blood loss, yet the surgeon seemed unconcerned. Dr. Calhoun was respected by the team, so she wasn’t concerned either. After he closed, they wheeled Elias into post-op. The nurse in charge there was the first to pick up on some minor heart arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat. He saw nothing in the chart that indicated that th

A neighbor recently shared a story of visiting his primary care physician for a routine examination although he stated that, “there’s nothing routine when you’re 82 years old.”  He had been a patient at this practice for the last 13 years but the last few visits began to follow a disturbing pattern.  He would be handed a form to fill out each and every visit to collect changes in any personal information like address, telephone number or emergency contact since his last visit.  When he told the clerk that nothing had changed, the receptionist insisted that he fill out the form anyway since they were required to update information in their new electronic medical records system.  “But nothing has changed since I was here three months ago,” he stated emphatically.  The clerk was relentless and my neighbor finally gave in to the request and filled in the form, but decided to challenge the physician on this seemingly duplicitous administrative practice.  

My sisters were both ballet dancers when they were younger.  Being the youngest child in my family and the only boy, I found myself with my mom at Miss Louise’s Dance Studio on many days after school waiting for my sisters to finish dance practice or rehearsals.  I would have rather been playing baseball or riding my bike but instead I would sit and watch the practices day after day.  The studio had floor to ceiling mirrors for the young dancers to watch themselves pirouette and plié. Each movement was critiqued and polished through the watchful and experienced eyes of Miss Louise. Weeks and months of practice were required to meet the high standards Miss Louise required to perform in the annual recital. Both my sisters became dedicated and talented dancers because they rehearsed many hours each day.  Needless to say, the recital was a success with flawless performances. Miss Louise would have had it no other way.  

Later in my milit

Early in my career as an airline pilot, I was taught a valuable lesson about how distractions can have disastrous consequences.  In 1988, a Boeing 727 full of summer vacationing travelers crashed immediately after takeoff from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport killing 14 and injuring 76 passengers and crew.  The cause of the crash was linked to the aircraft flaps.  Flaps are devices on the trailing edge of the wing that provide the necessary lift for an aircraft during takeoff and landing.  If the flaps are not lowered, the aircraft has insufficient lift to remain airborne at slower speeds and will most likely stall and crash like the 727.  

So, why didn’t the crew lower the flaps before takeoff?

There were three qualified, experienced crew members in that cockpit that day and no one noticed that the flaps were improper

Have you ever considered that the experience of being a patient in a hospital may be similar to other institutional experiences? 

Where else do you go where they take your clothes from you? Where else are you identified by a number? Where else is every action based on an order?Where else do they tell you when and what to eat? Where else are a series of rooms known as wards? Where else are you confined to a given area of the institution?

Well, by now you guessed it – a prison or jail is the answer!  Although I’ve never been incarcerated, thankfully, most prisoners want one thing more than anything else and that is to get out!  That is another common desire among patients as well.  Getting out of the hospital means you’re hopefully well enough to convalesce in another care setting or in your own home.

When seeking healthcare, most patients are seeking both health and care.

Health is the medical well-being or clinical condition that has caused you to seek a healthcare provider. You are at an emergency room because your child had a bicycle accident and appears to have a broken arm; that is health.  

Care is the emotional part of your visit; emotions like empathy, concern, compassion and assurance are important signs that your provider cares.  In the case of your injured child, this could include the provider listening intently to your concerns, making your child as comfortable as possible, managing the pain, setting expectations related to wait times, introducing themselves and establishing a personal connection with you and your child.

Delivering a baby is one of the few medical procedures where you, the patient, can decide how much pain you want to experience and when you want to experience it. Choice is more prevalent in labor and delivery than in any other area of a hospital. 

Moms during regular visits with their obstetrician discuss their choices for delivery, including even the timing of their deliveries.  Medications are available that can induce labor, speed it up or slow it down based on many factors.  Because of the availability of these medications coupled with various reasons including convenience and comfort, early labor deliveries and elective Cesarean (C) sections have become very common. 

My dad loved woodworking.  He always used to say, “measure twice and cut once” before he pushed another plank through the table saw.  This was a double-check strategy similar to the “look both ways before you cross the street, then look again” instructions from my earliest childhood memories.  The simple lessons here are that double-checks keep you from making a mistake and prevent you from being hurt. 

A nurse entered the waiting area of an oncologist’s office and called for “Mrs. Davis” to come back to the treatment room for her chemotherapy. The nurse carefully checked the chemotherapy orders against the medical record the receptionist had handed her. Verifying only that the patient was Mrs. Davis, the nurse prepared and administered the chemotherapy. Several hours later, another patient named “Mrs. Davis” arrived for chemotherapy, and t