The most popular I-Team Videos on CBS4.com
Jul 22, 2008 10:23 pm US/Eastern
Doctors Told They Will Make Mistakes
University of Miami program teaching doctors how to deal with mistakes.
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
There could be a huge change in the way we do medicine in America. And part of the beginning of that change is taking place in South Florida.
The CBS4 I-Team first exposed the troubling practice of doctors who bill patients for medical mistakes in May of 2008.
And now, I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock uncovered the new approach taking place in South Florida, which is meant to solve the problem of billing patients for mistakes by doctors, while saving them money and suffering in the future.
As a group of first year medical residents struggle to stop a baby from dying, observers watch. The medical residents seem unable to do anything to stop it.
It's not a real baby but a computerized mechanical substitute.
Even so, the scenario, the training and the message these new doctors are learning at the University of Miami's School of Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital are as real and as important as any they may ever learn. It could save you in the future.
"What we're teaching them here is 'you're going to make mistakes,'" said Dr. David Birnbach, of the University of Miami's Center for Patient Safety.
Dr. Birnbach runs the unusual program at UM's School of Medicine.
"We're one of the few hospitals in the country that require this day of patient safety and communication skills training before they start seeing patients," Dr. David Birnbach said.
Rusty Juergens knows the problem first hand.
Juergens is the hair dresser whose story the CBS4 I-Team first uncovered in May, 2008. Juergens went into knee surgery at another Florida hospital last November. He nearly died on the operating table and he never had the knee surgery, but got billed by the hospital for the procedure anyway.
"There'd have to been a whole new code of ethics for the doctors," Juergens said. "Whether you got the surgery or not it still gets paid, that's the frustrating part."
Doctor Birnbach and his colleagues are trying to change that type of mindset in medicine at its very foundation.
"When I was in medical school we were taught doctors are perfect, were 'gods.' We never make mistakes," Dr. Birnbach said.
Dr. Birnbach wants to turn that attitude on its head. And by doing so, Dr. Birnbach hopes to stop more accidents and medical problems such as Rusty Juergens' case from happening.
"Everybody knows that medical errors occur. (They know) that physicians are not perfect," Dr, Birnbach told the I-Team. "That's not the issue. The system is typically the issue. Good doctors will make mistakes. Good systems will prevent the patient from ever being hurt by a human error."
As president of Florida's Health Care Coalition, Becky Cherney represents major health employers and their insurance companies. In her current position, Cherney frequently experiences these issues first hand.
"The ideal way for that to happen is for doctors and hospitals to come forward and say 'We won't bill,'" Becky Cherney said. "The employers are saying wait a minute 'We can't keep doing this' (and) 'this is crazy.'"
Cherney continued, "It is bad enough when you don't have the right quality and you're paying for poor quality," she said. "But also paying for errors is untenable."
Doctor Birnbach agrees. But the head of the Center for Patient Safety at University of Miami's Medical School wants to take the culture shift a step further. Dr. Birnbach and other reformers like him want doctors to report on themselves, not only after an actual accident, but also even after a near-miss much like pilots currently anonymously report on themselves after incidents of close calls between airplanes.
Dr. David Birnbach said the self-reporting system works well with pilots because they have a direct, vested interest in the outcome of plane crashes and avoiding them.
"When a pilot is in a crash he goes down with the plane and when a physician makes a mistake they don't and so pilots tend to take this training way more seriously than physicians," Dr. David Birnbach said.
Asking about this attempt of change in medical approach Stephen Stock said "That's a huge cultural shift here?"
Dr. David Birnbach replied "It is. And it's already starting (in the medical field) It's not only starting here, it's starting in many other places."
Already 16 states have banned the practice of billing for medical mistakes.
But so far, Florida isn't one of those states.
Patient advocates such as Becky Cherney said if doctors and the system of charging after mistakes doesn't change here, in other words if the University of Miami's approach doesn't fix the problem, lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington will have to step in.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
