Doctors and surgeons in Colorado and Wyoming must pay attention to what they’re doing at all times, or the rate of preventable accidents skyrockets. Even simple things can have dire consequences. For instance, a doctor who is not paying close attention to drug levels could give a patient twice as much as ordered, leading to injury or death on the operating table.
Some studies have shown that the rates of distraction injuries are rather disturbing. The first step to fix the problem is to find out why doctors are so distracted in the first place.
According to researchers, the problem could be technology. Some medical professionals have been caught making phone calls—and not the official, necessary variety. Others have been sending text messages. Still others have taken time to go on the Internet and surf the web, doing everything from looking at airline tickets to checking emails.
This wouldn’t have been such a problem 20 years ago. With advancements in technology, though, people can do all of the above on a single smartphone that is the size of a wallet. It doesn’t take much for doctors to give in to distractions, and they have a lot of technology right at their fingertips. Even if it’s against regulations, it’s easy for them to rationalize quickly using the devices.
Of course, this technology can also be used to help them by making it easier to communicate or share patient records, but when it is just a distraction, it causes many problems that are easily avoidable.
If you’ve been injured by a distracted doctor or lost a loved one in the same fashion, you may have a right to seek financial compensation.
Source: FIndLaw, “Distracted Doctors Linked to Medical Errors,” Andrew Chow, accessed Nov. 04, 2015