“Iatrogenic” is an adjective to describe an illness caused by a healthcare provider, medicine, treatment or healthcare system such as a hospital stay. It comes from Greek word roots meaning “created by a healer.”
Examples of iatrogenic issues include drug side effects, hospital acquired infections, and surgical errors.
No medicine is perfect. Common drug side effects occur in about 10% of cases. These are usually minor issues such as headaches or rashes. Uncommon side effects impact from 0.1-1% of people taking a particular medication. Rare or very rare effects such as life-threatening allergic reactions or major organ damage affect fewer than one in a thousand people.
To learn about potential side effects of any medication, be sure to read the fine print on the package insert. You can also find out more at the Drugs.com database, which offers detailed information about side effects of both prescription and over-the-counter medications.
If you ever have a serious medication side effect, be sure to let the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) know about it: https://www.fda.gov/safety/medwatch-fda-safety-information-and-adverse-event-reporting-program/reporting-serious-problems-fda This can help other people avoid health issues caused by medicines.
Hundreds of thousands of US hospitalized patients contract new, and potentially very harmful, infections while in the hospital. Some acquire more than one. That’s about 2.6-4% of all hospital patients.
Common risk factors for getting a hospital acquired infection (HAI) include:
Antibiotics- These strong medications disrupt the normal body microbes, allowing dangerous bacteria to take over.
Invasive devices- Breathing machines, catheters and tubes provide methods for harmful germs to enter the body.
Long stays- The more time spent in a healthcare facility, the more exposure to dangerous microorganisms.
Weakened immune system- People who are seriously ill along with the very young and very old are more likely to have less effective immunity.
The most common types of hospital acquired infections include:
Bloodstream infections- 14% of HAI cases, often introduced by central line IV tubes.
Pneumonia – 15% of lung infections are caused in the hospital by ventilators and other breathing equipment.
Surgical site infections (SSIs)- These infections are caused by microbes entering the body during surgery, and account for 22% of HAIs.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs)- Mainly introduced by urinary catheters, these are almost a third of all HAIs.
Hospital acquired infections can be mitigated through key prevention strategies used by healthcare providers. These include:
Antibiotic stewardship – Take care to avoid drug resistance.
Aseptic techniques – Use personal protective equipment and sterile barriers during procedures.
Device management – Use only when absolutely necessary and remove promptly.
Disinfect room surfaces – Regular environmental cleaning using bleach can reduce drug-resistant pathogens.
Hand hygiene – Hands should be washed with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer before and after each patient contact.
Patients and visitors can also help prevent HAIs. They should wash their hands often and remind everyone, including hospital staff, to wash their hands before touching the patient or any medical devices.
Surgical errors are very rare, happening in about 1 of every 112,000 surgical procedures, or about 4000 annually in the US. Almost one in ten surgeons have made a medical error at some point. The two most serious types of surgical errors are wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery (happening about 40 times a week in the US) or foreign objects such as sponges or clamps left inside when the surgical site is closed (about 39 times a week).
Medical providers are human and can make mistakes. Healthcare team members are expected to look out for each other’s errors to protect their patients. In a meta-analysis of retained surgical equipment, it was found that poor communication among the operation team was an important factor in this type of error.
A meta-analysis of the effects of poor communication on patient safety showed that adequate and timely information shared among healthcare workers, patients and caregivers could prevent at least 10% of patient safety events. The researchers concluded that “Research is needed to develop effective interventions and to learn more about how poor communication leads to patient safety incidents.”
