The Importance of Healthcare Accreditation

In order to ensure the safety of patients, it is important to have the property accreditation for both a hospital and the medical practitioners who work there. rnMedical malpractice or professional negligence is not uncommon at all and happens on a daily basis in hospitals around the world which, in part, is due to a failure on proper accreditation. rnThe following medical malpractices have been known to happen from time to time: • Misdiagnosis • Incorrect medicine prescribed or incorrect dosage administered • Gross negligence during surgical procedures • Delayed Diagnosis • Unnecessary Surgery • Excessive Childbirth TraumaMisdiagnosis Misdiagnosis can actually be quite common, mostly amongst inexperienced doctors who fail to attribute a set of symptoms to serious ailments. rnThis can occur when symptoms which are pointing towards the possibility of cancer or an impending heart attack are ruled off as minor ailments. This could lead to the patient developing into an advanced stage of cancer, or suffering a heart attack. Incorrect medicine prescribed or incorrect dosage administered Doctors who fail to follow-up on their patients’ reports might prescribe medicine to those patients without due regard for possible side-effects that may compound upon ailments which they already have. rnAs an example, some medications are known to cause heart arrhythmia, which is the irregular and often accelerated beating of the heart and so prescribing medications which features this as a side-effect to someone with pre-existing heart problems could cause them to suffer a heart-attack. Gross negligence during surgical procedures This form of negligence is amongst the worst and can have fatal results. Examples would be if a surgeon had to cause undue trauma to a patient’s organs during a surgery by accidental lacerations with a scalpel which may lead to internal bleeding or an infection later, or a neurosurgeon who performs a delicate operation on a patient’s spinal cord and accidently caused that patient permanent paralysis etc. Delayed Diagnosis Similar to misdiagnosis, but focussing more towards negligence, when a long-developing ailment could have been prevented. Unnecessary Surgery One of the greatest trends nowadays is the preference of doctors to perform caesarean section surgeries in order to deliver a baby instead of considering natural child birth. Rumour has it that doctors prefer this procedure as it entails a higher medical pay-out and do so without regard for the mothers of the children. Excessive Childbirth Trauma A mother in South Africa recently won a R10m lawsuit against negligent nurses and doctors who caused her child to suffer paralysis and cerebral palsy during a botched child-birth procedure. The baby was brutally forced out of its mother during childbirth despite the mother pleading that something was terribly wrong. This is an example where improperly trained hospital staff who do not carry the correct certification and accreditation can lead to acts of gross medical negligence. Doctors and nurses have to abide strictly by the medical code of ethics and it is their responsibility to make sure they have the correct certification and accreditation, otherwise risk medical malpractice lawsuits or even having the license to practise removed.