Oops, doctor

Christian Century, Feb 8, 2003

OOPS, DOCTOR: A surgical instrument is left behind in a patient's abdomen and tears through the bowel and wall of the bladder; the wrong part of a woman's breast is used for a biopsy, delaying diagnosis of cancer for months; a cardiac surgeon skips a small but essential step in a heart-valve operation, killing the patient.

Are incompetent or unscrupulous physicians to blame for these mistakes? Not necessarily, according to surgeon and author Atul Gawande (Complications, Metropolitan Books). The fact is that all doctors make mistakes. Gawande asked highly respected surgeons at top medical schools to anonymously share with him mistakes they had made in the past year, and they all had stories to tell. "The important question isn't how to keep bad physicians from harming patients; it's how to keep good physicians from harming patients," says Gawande. According to one estimate, up to 44,000 people die annually in the U.S. at least in part because of errors in treatment.