“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.”
