A recent blog by a noted nurse-educator about the agonizing death of her grandmother illustrates the opportunity for multiple medical errors in today’s complex medical care system.

What started out as a simple overdose of a medication led to yet more mistakes and errors. She wrote that “no amount of industry knowledge on my part, no amount of elder advocacy and no keen interest in Medicare could have saved Tootsie from a textbook case of error, difficult transitions in care, unnecessary intervention, missed opportunities, and conflicting opinions and prognoses. No matter how good Tootsie’s medical care was, non-clinical factors such as hand-off communication, caregiver coordination and outpatient care management and support were overlooked.”

Here is a link to the full blog post:

[Tootsie’s Story: Medical Error Takes a Life][1]

Cases in which a long hospitalization results in death, especially of an older patient, are often very difficult to pursue. Unless a specific negligent act or omission can be identified as the key factor in the bad outcome, it can be impossible to sort out the many clinical and non-clinical issues that contributed to the death. And with so many providers being involved, including nurses, consultants, and various specialized providers, pursuing the case can require many different expert witnesses, thus adding to the complexity and costs of taking on the case.

[1]: http://www.rwjf.org/en/blogs/human-capital-blog/2013/02/tootsie_s_story_med.html?cid=xct_hcb_ob1 “Tootsie’s Story: Medical Error Takes a Life”