| Description |
1 videodisc (DVD) (45 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in |
| Series |
Four corners (Television program)
|
| Summary |
' "Do no harm." It's the ethos of medicine, the bedrock principle for all its practitioners. But for loved ones of patients who die as a consequence of medical error, the credo may sound hollow. Are these tragedies the result of incompetent doctors or nurses, or is something ailing our system of medical care? No one knows exactly how many people die in hospitals because of errors or omissions or delays. A 1995 report suggested 18,000 Australians might be dying every year from "adverse events". In America, it's claimed up to 100,000 people annually are being killed by their care. "That's more deaths than breast cancer, more deaths than AIDS, more deaths than motor vehicle accidents," notes Harvard medical professor Donald Berwick. Patient safety experts like Berwick point to system failure rather than individual fault. They claim that the chances of dying accidentally in an acute care hospital are as many as 10,000 times greater than the chances of dying accidentally on a commercial airliner a result, they say, of aviation's tighter checks and balances and systems of reporting. The root of the problem, according to critics, lies in the culture of medicine - a culture of secrecy and blame in which the only mistakes that are investigated are the ones that can't be hidden. This program from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation draws lessons from sentinel cases, including the deaths of 12 babies undergoing heart surgery at one hospital in the 1990s. It explores the tragic consequences of medical error on patients, their families and on health care workers, and asks how medicine can be made safer.' -- ABC website |
| Notes |
Off-air recording of ABC-TV "Four Corners" broadcast July 3, 2006. Copied under Part VA of the Copyright Act |
| Credits |
ABC Executive producer: Bruce Belsham ; CBC director: Daniel Zuckerbrot ; CBC Executive producer: Michael Allder |
| Performer |
Narrator: Chris Masters |
| Notes |
DVD |
|
No rating given |
|
Available for Deakin University staff and students only |
| Subject |
Hospital care
|
|
Death
|
|
Medical errors
|
|
Patients -- Safety measures
|
| Author |
Masters, Chris
|
|
Belsham, Bruce
|
|
Zuckerbrot, Daniel
|
|
Allder, Michael
|
|
ABC-TV (Australia)
|
|
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
|
|
