Physician Says Doctors Must Break Their Silence to Prevent Medical Errors, the 3rd Leading Cause of Death
Carol Gunn predicts September 22 Institute of Medicine report will show an increase in preventable deaths
PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Carol Gunn, who practices medicine in Portland, Ore., will be paying attention when the Institute of Medicine releases its latest report on medical error deaths in the U.S. on Sept. 22. After the Institute's first report on medical errors in 1999, healthcare began a large-scale focus on error reduction. Unfortunately, an independent report in 2013 showed no progress on error reduction and that over 200,000 people die annually from preventable medical mistakes. Gunn expects that number to skyrocket with the inclusion of "delays in diagnosis" errors, included for the first time, in the Institute's upcoming report.
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Gunn is both angry and outraged that so little progress has been made and so few resources committed to reducing the third leading cause of death in America. She wonders why more patients, families and physicians do not share her anger. She's on a mission to change that in a memorial to her older sister, who died last year at a large teaching hospital after her cardiac symptoms were repeatedly ignored.
Gunn has many ideas on what can be done to reduce such errors. She explains:
* Ways medical culture needs to change--including why physicians need to offer feedback to other physicians when they observe them making mistakes. Ignoring mistakes and simply moving on should no longer be an option.
* What she learned after studying her sister's 14,000-page medical record.
* What patients must do if their symptoms are being ignored.
* Why it is so important to share stories of medical errors.
ABOUT DR. GUNN
Carol Gunn, M.D., has been speaking out about issues pertaining to medical errors and the changes needed in the medical community since the death of her sister Anna in 2014. She recently spoke before an audience of over 1,700 people at Tedx Fargo, sharing her thoughts about her sister's poor care and how it changed her as a physician. The talk will be available on YouTube soon, and is called, "Medical Errors: The Silent Killer in Medicine."
AVAILABILITY: Portland, Ore., nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Dr. Carol Gunn, (503) 542-0080; Email
SOURCE Carol Gunn
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