Dora Anne Mills discusses medical errors as panelist on MPBN’s “Maine Calling”
Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, UNE’s vice president for clinical Affairs and director of the Center for Health Innovation, was a featured panelist on Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s hour-long radio show, “Maine Calling” on Friday May 13. Mills discussed medical errors. She was joined by co-guests Quality Counts CEO Lisa Letourneau, M.D., M.P.H., and Steven Michaud, president of the Maine Hospital Association. The panel took questions from the audience and spoke about the different aspects of medical errors, now the third leading cause of death.
Mills spoke about medical errors as a major public health problem, its underlying causes and the overall approaches to effectively addressing it. She especially emphasized that 80 percent of medical error deaths are due to poor teamwork as an underlying cause and how UNE’s approach of interprofessional education is an effective strategy. She also provided four steps that all hospitalized patients and their families can take to safeguard against medical errors: maintain a notebook by the bedside that includes notes on test results, current patient status, concerns, goals and a list of all medications; monitor the administration of all medications and make sure they match what is in the notebook; be the hand washing police; and have someone by the bedside for several hours per day.