Regarding, the government’s response to coronavirus, on March 13, the first meeting of the National Security Council (NHC) took place. The Prime Minister of Pakistan chaired the NHC meeting which includes top military and civil leadership. The purpose of the meeting was to look at the alarming threat to the health system. So he asked the relevant persons to lay out a plan and likewise inform him on this matter. On the other hand, the first case of coronavirus registered on February 26th. The person visited Iran recently. His contacts traced and isolated quickly. In short, until March 12, the total number of cases was 21 in Pakistan. For live stats, visit here. But there is a need for a strict action plan. Imran Khan on his speech on March 17, asked,” While there is a need for caution but no need to panic (Ghabrana Nahi hai).” He said that we can not completely lock down the country. Because of doing this, daily wagers can die out of hunger instead of coronavirus. For instance, India completely locked down the country without taking the view of the people who are below the poverty line. But Pakistan has the largest number of cases in South Asia, far more than its neighbor, India. Before any registered case, Pakistan decided not to strand the 800 students in Wuhan, Chian returned to the country. 18th Amendment According to the 18th Amendment to the constitution of Pakistan, it gives semi-autonomous status to provinces to adopt a different course of action from the central government. As a result, we saw varying lockdowns intensity in Sindh, Pakistan’s largest province hit by Taftan visitors. The government kept the visitors in camps for 14 days and let them go after screening. After that, they were allowed to return back to their homes and villages. But a large number of people got positive in their reports when tested by local health care workers. However, health experts alleged that people were badly mishandled by authorities. This provides the place to call military aid “act in aid of civil powers” but not until formally invited. PM and President Steps The Prime Minister of Pakistan has approved an economic fund of 1 Trillion rupees for people to help them in crisis. Meanwhile, the President of Pakistan visited China to learn from them as they have declined the number of cases now. Beijing pledged to help Pakistan as they now dealt with reducing the number of cases. The team from China has also come to help out. Ministry of Health Services As a result of this pandemic, the Ministry of Health Service has laid out a plan which shows the intention go government to respond to this outbreak. Vision A national effort to respond to COIVD-19 emergency in Pakistan Minimal National Morbidity and Mortality Long term Developing a structure ensuring timely response and plan for all pandemics. Problems to Government Above all, the government is doing all its efforts to stop this pandemic. But people are not serious about taking precautions. They allow their kids to play on grounds. Upon closing the grounds, they go to the open area for playing. Their parents are unwilling to quarantine them to crowded homes. Pakistan is the world’s fifth populous country. Similarly, the clerical community is refusing to help the government. They have not stopped large gatherings and offering prayers. About 150,000 clerics from around the world helped spread the virus in a religious gathering. Pakistan’s cases have risen from 250, a few weeks before to 1098 after that. The officials canceled it but participants already scale, eating, sleeping and living in close quarters. Steps announced by Government Ten steps announced by the government to prevent this pandemic in Pakistan which are: National Coordination Committee for coronavirus (COVID-19) will make decisions on a daily basis. All educational institutions, both public and private, are closed till 31st May. Pakistan will completely seal its border with Afghanistan and Iran for travelers and trades. Katarpur will be closed for Pakistani but Indians pilgrims will keep visiting. Pakistan will departure international flights from Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad for effective screens travelers. The government put a ban on all public gatherings and conferences. To prevent coronavirus, no visiting allowed in prisoners. The government will reach to religious leaders to work out the modalities for effective management of religious services. The government will devise a plan to avoid food supply shortcomings. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will cooperate with the district and provincial for necessary implementations. A corona relief tiger force will be working with government and security agencies. The force will provide food to people if we forced to lockdown. In short, the government has taken many steps on its behalf to avoid the separation of the pandemic. It will be achieved by the mutual corporation of people and the government. Because if we forced to lockdown, many peoples will die out to hunger. It is only possible by the individual and collective efforts. We should not be a hurdle in the way of prevention. Instead, we should play our role in this. For instance, Instacre is providing free consultation for coronavirus.
How To Prevent Corona Virus Through Telemedicine? Telemedicine is providing health care when patients and physicians (doctors) are not physically present there. An advancement in telemedicine has given people the choice that whether to visit doctors physically or approach doctors virtually. While using telemedicine, doctors and patients can share screens and share information from one computer to another. In addition, it is useful for people living in rural areas to access physicians virtually who previously had difficulty in approaching them physically. Using telemedicine, patients can see a doctor for diagnoses and treatment of diseases. Patients can do all this in the comfort of their homes without waiting hours for an appointment. Types of Telemedicine There are three common types of telemedicine health care and it is not only limited to these methods. Interactive Medicine: The interactive Medicine method allows patients and doctors to communicate in real-time just. Store and Forward: The store and forward method include a 3rd party in the chain. The patients send their information to the provider of service. The providers share their information with the practitioner who is at his place. Remote Patient Monitoring: This method allows caretakers to monitor the patient’s blood pressure and sugar who resides at home by using mobile devices to keep the record. Difference between Telemedicine and Telehealth According to the World Health Organization (WHO), telemedicine is “healing from distance.” It is a practice through which a physician checks the patients with the help of technology. The doctors use digital imaging, video consultation, and remote medical diagnosis. The individuals do not need to visit the physicians in person for a check-up. The use of telemedicine methods makes possible for specialists to check the patients in remote areas. Unlikely, telehealth is the “use of information and telecommunication technology to provide health care service and public health administration remotely.” There is one distinct difference between which is that telehealth cover non-clinical processes as well as meetings, conferences, physician’s training, and continuing medical education (CME). It is not a specific service like telemedicine. It is a collection of services to improve patient care, health management, and administration. Benefits of Telemedicine A patient does not require to physically visit a doctor. Saves time and travel costs. Less time away from work. Privacy. No danger to expose any contagious diseases. Less interference of the child and eldercare responsibilities. The distance and time differences can limit access to care. Fortunately, Telemedicine overcomes the demographic differences, especially for specialized doctors. It can be used to serve the unserved communities and geographically rural areas. Telemedicine can improve the quality of health care in both physical and mental health problems. Easily diagnoseable diseases It is useful in psychotherapy and teledermatology. Other common health issues that can be addressed appropriately through telemedicine include: Coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnose Cold and FLu cough Diarrhea Bites Burns Sore Throat Fever Rashes Skin concerns Dental problems Using telehealth, patient and provider will be able to communicate virtually. This will help patients by reducing unnecessary office and hospital visits, lowering the risk of contacting COVID-19. Coronavirus gives telehealth a new horizon and many telehealth services are providing free telemedicine services. “COVID-19 is different because we do not know all the factors surrounding transmission and we do not know its effects on patients,” Jason Hallock (Chief Medical Officer for SOC Telemed)points out. “There have been a significant number of deaths, the uncertainty surrounding that is scaring both patients and the general public. Our healthcare workers do not have all the answers yet. Telemedicine can be useful to evaluate and reassure patients in alternative settings. It can be used to help patients decide who needs to be seen in the hospital or an alternative setting like urgent care.” Telemedicine is itself a tool to fight against coronavirus. It can be used to connect a doctor and patient via smartphones. It can be used to provide counseling in remote areas or areas with a higher number of patients. Dr. Stephen Parodi (an infectious disease specialist) said that it is critical to use telehealth services for managing this pandemic. He is one of the leaders in the use of virtual visits for its patients. In a short part of preventing the coronavirus, it is important to keep the sick people out of contact with other patients and doctors. Telemedicine is very useful in managing this crisis. For more info, contact us.
How Can Doctors Keep Going During Corona Outbreak Through Telemedicine In today’s time of coronavirus outbreak, which has now become a pandemic, there is a heavy workload on healthcare professionals. They are at great risk of catching the infection. In Italy, out of 67,814 reported cases of coronavirus, 6205 cases are of health care workers according to the 25th march report. These statistics show that even after the lock-down of the whole country, our health care professionals are at a huge risk of getting the coronavirus infection. This risk can be minimized if the patients consult the doctors via telemedicine. This would save them from getting the infection. In this article, we will talk about how the telemedicine applications are helping the doctors in this coronavirus outbreak and how can they cope with it? What Is Telemedicine? Telemedicine is becoming the first line of defense and the most useful tool for doctors nowadays. This helps them to consult with the patient over the phone or computer and let them prescribe the medicines as well. It is the platform where doctors can interact with their patients through a video-conference. Telemedicine helps the doctors to prescribe, diagnose, educate and monitor the patient remotely, with no physical interaction. Telemedicine lets the doctor ask relevant questions to the patient about the disease, they can discuss the signs, symptoms, and history through a virtual visit. If the patient’s health concerns the doctor, they first send them to get their chest x-ray and blood tests done. After that, they can rule out the final diagnosis. They can then make a further decision of either letting them stay at home or to get them admitted to the hospital. How Is Telemedicine Beneficial? If health care workers like the doctors and the nurses would get sick, there would be a rapid, unbearable impact that will affect everybody. Health care workers who keep working at hospitals while infected from coronavirus can transmit it to more people. If these workers go home to recover, they would eventually infect their family members. This would also put an immense load on their coworkers. If they are critically ill and need to get hospitalized, then there will be fewer resources available to treat the public. Eventually, if this keeps going on, we will have to face a shortage of doctors after this coronavirus pandemic. So to save the doctors it is necessary to shift on telemedicine. The hospitals can not manage the heavy volume of patients in this state of panic. They can manage it with the help of telemedicine applications. The telemedicine can protect the doctors because it will reduce their exposure to the patients. No physical contact would be there, by which there would be no chance of catching the infection. Hospitals’ waiting areas are already busy and so overloaded with people that anyone can catch an infection. The doctors are also at high risk when examining the patient suffering from COVID-19. Remote consultation by the doctor, therefore, reduces the risk of getting exposure and infection. Telemedicine applications like InstaCare help in keeping the patient and the doctor isolated. How Does Telemedicine Works? The telemedicine works by assessing the person remotely who is facing the symptoms of coronavirus and monitoring their progress. If deteriorated, the doctors advise them to shift to the hospitals. This technique helps in only shifting the patients who are having any complications. This also decreases the high volume of patients coming to the hospital’s emergency. The doctors and nurses also feel less stressed and can cope easily with the situation. Drawbacks It can be a solution for many, specially coronavirus, a highly contagious disease. But doctors need to examine the patient properly. Telemedicine can only help when the patient can tell the symptoms bothering them. They can discuss those symptoms with the doctors to have an expert opinion. The doctors can then make a further decision about what to do next. The doctors can replace some of their patients to telemedicine who are not critically ill. Still, they have to work day in and day out at the intensive care units and emergencies of the hospital where they can oversee the critically ill patients.
Everything I need to know about Coronavirus COVID-19 before it gets me It’s March 2020, and within a few months, Coronavirus has made the lockdown of the whole country inevitable. Furthermore, the panic created among the masses is on top of that. But as they say, knowledge is power, you can better prevent yourself from the virus by learning more about it. So here is each and everything you need to know about novel Coronavirus aka COVID-19. WHAT IS COVID-19? The coronavirus belongs to the family of viruses that infects human beings and animals. The specific type of Coronavirus that the world is facing right now is SARS-Cov-2. The disease it causes is known as COVID-19. Since it’s a newly found virus, there has been very fewer studies on it. Hence we don’t know what actually happens when it enters the human body. But apart from that, we are aware of symptoms of COVID-19. One more thing we know about the virus is its highly contagious nature. The virus can cause mild to severe illness; which in worst cases, can turn into death. IS CORONAVIRUS A PANDEMIC? Globally 2,46,295 confirmed cases have been reported of coronavirus. Out of which 81,139 are from China, 35,713 from Italy, 17,361 from Iran, 14,769 from Spain and rest of them are from other countries like the United States, France, United Kingdom and many others. Total reported deaths from coronavirus until today are 1,018. Considering that situation, WHO (World Health Organization) has announced Coronavirus to be a pandemic. WHEN AND WHERE DID THE CORONAVIRUS EMERGE? COVID-19 is a new strain that has emerged from Wuhan, the city of China, in December 2019. It has now spread to different countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Iran, Pakistan and many others. There is no cure discovered for this disease yet. The patients are treated symptomatically. The Chinese centre for disease control has revealed that 80% of the suffering people faced mild symptoms, 15% of them faced severe symptoms, while 5% of the patients were critically ill due to the coronavirus. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF CORONAVIRUS? The signs and symptoms of novel coronavirus resemble the symptoms of common cold, flu and pneumonia. It causes fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue and shortness of breath. People with weak immunity may also suffer from nausea and diarrhoea. The emergency symptoms of coronavirus are; severe difficulty in breathing, confusion, bluish lips or face and persistent pain in the chest. At this stage, you should rush to the hospital emergency. HOW DOES CORONAVIRUS SPREADS? The coronavirus spreads from person to person through airborne droplets. If an infected person, coughs and sneezes in a close environment in front of others, the other people will eventually catch the infection. The virus can also transmit through high touch surfaces. If an infected person is carrying viruses on his hand and touches the surface, he will transmit the virus on the surface. If a healthy person touches that surface again, he can catch the virus easily. HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF FROM CORONA VIRUS? You can protect yourself from coronavirus by wearing a mask if you are coughing or sneezing. Wash your hands frequently and sanitize them with an alcohol-based sanitizer. Do not touch your face, nose and eyes with unwashed hands. Keep disinfecting the high touch surfaces like switchboards, doorknobs, fridge doors and keys etc. Avoid going to overcrowd places and maintain a distance of 1 foot from the one who is coughing or sneezing. Cook the meat and eggs at high temperature. Wash the fruits and vegetable properly before use. Try to isolate yourself at home as much as you can. Avoid going out for unnecessary tasks and also avoid international travelling.. WHY IS WASHING HANDS NECESSARY? Washing hands frequently is necessary because there is a fair chance of carrying the virus in your hand which you have caught by touching any surface. The coronavirus resides on the surfaces for a long duration, if you will touch the surface where viruses are present you can easily get infected. WHEN WILL I HAVE THE SYMPTOMS AFTER EXPOSURE? The incubation period for coronavirus may vary between 2 to 14 days. Within this period, the person will not show any symptoms. You will have the symptoms after 14 days of exposure. There is a chance of transmitting the virus to others in this phase as well. WHO IS AT RISK? The older adults, immunocompromised people and the ones with comorbidities like heart diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes and lung diseases are at higher risk of getting worse symptoms of coronavirus. DOES EVERYONE WITH SYMPTOMS NEEDS TO GET TESTED? No! Not everyone having flu symptoms needs to get tested for COVID-19. If you are suffering from cough, fever and sore throat, try to isolate yourself at home. Avoid exposure to other people, so that you do not transmit your infection to others. You should only go for a test if you are having severe symptoms like shortness of breath, high-grade fever, and severe fatigue. Not everyone with flu-like symptoms can be tested for coronavirus because it is not possible to test such a large number of people. WHAT SHOULD I TAKE AS TREATMENT? You should only take paracetamol if you are facing any of the coronavirus symptoms. Do not take anti-inflammatory medicines like ibuprofen, naproxen, and cortisone. They have shown adverse effects on the people suffering from coronavirus. Further, if you are uncertain about your health, connect with a professional doctor through Instacare Corona Response Unit for Corona consultation. Through this service, you’ll be able to get an expert opinion, remotely, safely, instantly. WHAT IF I HAVE A TRAVEL HISTORY? If you have a travel history in the past 14 days, you should self isolate yourself. You can transmit the virus to others, even if you have no symptoms. After 14 days it can be confirmed either you are infected or not. HOW IS TEST DONE FOR CORONAVIRUS CONFIRMATION? The confirmation test for coronavirus
The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading globally and numbers are increasing exponentially. So far, 182,605 cases have been reported. 7,171 people have died and 79,881 people have recovered. The spread of coronavirus is increasing with every passing day taking the tally to a total of 184 cases. People coming from Tahtan are considered to be the major source of the pandemic but can we fight coronavirus with telemedicine in Pakistan? Right now, The entire nation is in a state of panic and fear. People are worried about kids and their elders since these age groups are at the highest risk. The government of Pakistan is calling help from local telemedicine companies in Pakistan to join them in fighting against this deadly virus. Meanwhile, In this hour of need, InstaCare an award-winning telemedicine company striving to make healthcare accessible, reliable and efficient since 2016. Its telemedicine based solutions are already connecting doctors with patients not just locally but internationally too. For many doctors, the platform has remained a major source of getting patients from beyond the borders and different cities. In these crucial hours, InstaCare is standing firmly with the people of Pakistan and its government. The company has launched online Coronavirus Clinics aka “Coronavirus Response Units”. These clinics have enabled patients in Pakistan to access care without having to travel, thereby reducing the risks of exposure and spread. With these clinics a patient can talk to a doctor and doctor can analyze the symptoms and the case from anywhere. Coronavirus can harm you from a distance of a few meters, therefore, the safety of both patients, as well as, the doctor is critically important. Telemedicine seems a hope in this pandemic. If you are looking to avail of this service just visit our website or download InstaCare App from google play store.
Can There Be Spread Of Corona Through Dentistry? Considering the situation worldwide, there are high possibilities that any kind of interaction between humans, animals or even objects contains a huge risk of the corona. Spread in 110 countries so far, it’s the immediate point of concern. As far as dentistry is concerned, being a profession that deals with the human mouth, it contains relatively more chances of spreading the virus. Corona through dentistry is something that is highly possible. The spread of Corona through dentistry According to research published in the International Journal of Oral Science, there are three major ways through which Corona can spread. These there are as following: Airborne Spread Contact Spread Contaminated Surfaces Spread Airborne Spread The dental papers indicate that numerous dental strategies produce pressurized canned products and beads that are polluted with the virus. Consequently, bead and airborne transmission of 2019-nCoV are the most significant worries in dental facilities and medical clinics, since it is difficult to maintain a strategic distance from the age of a lot of vaporized and bead blended in with patient’s salivation and even blood during dental practice. Notwithstanding the contaminated patient’s hack and breathing, dental gadgets, for example, fast dental handpiece utilizes rapid gas to drive the turbine to turn at high velocity and work with running water. At the point when dental gadgets work in the patient’s oral pit, a lot of vaporized and beads blended in with the patient’s spit or even blood will be produced. Particles of beads and pressurized canned products are sufficiently little to remain airborne for an all-encompassing period before they choose ecological surfaces or enter the respiratory tract. In this way, the 2019-nCoV can possibly spread through beads and pressurized canned products from tainted people in dental centers and emergency clinics. Contact Spread A dental expert’s continuous, immediate or circuitous contact with human liquids, tolerant materials, and defiled dental instruments or natural surfaces makes a potential course to the spread of viruses. Likewise, dental experts and different patients have likely contact of conjunctival, nasal, or oral mucosa with beads and pressurized canned products containing microorganisms created from a tainted individual and pushed a short separation by hacking and talking without a veil. Compelling contamination control methodologies are expected to forestall the spread of 2019-nCoV through these contact schedules. Contaminated Surfaces Spread Human coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on surfaces like metal, glass, or plastic for up to a couple of days. Therefore, contaminated surfaces that are frequently contacted in healthcare settings are a potential source of coronavirus transmission. Dental practices derived droplets and aerosols from infected patients, which likely contaminate the whole surface in dental offices. In addition, it was shown at room temperature that HCoV remains infectious from 2 h up to 9 days, and persists better at 50% compared with 30% relative humidity. Thus, keeping a clean and dry environment in the dental office would help decrease the persistence of 2019-nCoV. Preventing the spread of Corona through dentistry There are a few preventive measures that dentists must take to avoid any kind of transmission of Corona. A few of them are given as follows: Patient Evaluation If possible, make sure that you are aware of the patient’s history. With a person with positive Corona, it’s highly advised to be extremely careful. Use Instacare’s Telemedicine to have a complete medical session through a video call. This will reduce the chances of transmission. Hand Hygiene It’s been widely notified that washing hands regularly, significantly reduces the chances of virus transmission. Use a hand sanitizer in case you don’t have access to water. Personal protective measures for dental professionals Airborne droplet transmission of infection is the main route of spread, particularly in dental clinics and hospitals. Barrier-protection equipment is strongly recommended for all healthcare givers in the clinic/hospital settings during the epidemic period of 2019-nCoV. Like including protective eyewear, masks, gloves, caps, face shields, and protective outwear. Rubber dam isolation The use of rubber dams can significantly minimize the production of saliva- and blood-contaminated aerosol or spatter, particularly in cases when high-speed handpieces and dental ultrasonic devices are used. Mouthrinse before dental procedures Since 2019-nCoV is vulnerable to oxidation, preprocedural mouthrinse containing oxidative agents such as 1% hydrogen peroxide or 0.2% povidone is recommended, for the purpose of reducing the salivary load of oral microbes, including potential 2019-nCoV carriage. A regular mouthrinse is also recommended. Even after all these measures, make sure that you don’t interact unnecessarily. Even now, we know very little about it. So, keep your surroundings clean.
The country is in Panic as 19 patients of coronavirus have been confirmed in Pakistan out of which 15 are reportedly in Karachi, 2 in Islamabad, 1 case in Quetta and 1 in Gilgit. Covid-19 aka coronavirus by world health organization has spread in over 100 countries. About 11 patients, suspected of coronavirus in Pakistan are still under observation in hospitals in different cities across the province. The suspected patients have been kept in isolation rooms including three patients in DHQ hospital, Gujranwala, two each in Mayo Hospital and Doctors Hospital in Lahore and one each in DHQ hospital, Hafizabad, DHQ hospital, Sargodha and DHQ hospital, Lodharan. As many as 65 patients have been cleared of suspicion of contracting the virus and discharged from hospitals from across the province. However, sources informed that two patients including a NAB prisoner and a patient from Gujranwala have also been kept in the High Dependency Unit at the Services Hospital, but it could not be confirmed if they were suffering from symptoms similar to coronavirus. “As only those patients, suspected of carrying coronavirus symptoms, are supposed to be kept in HDU isolation, but officials deny that these patients were being kept for suspicion of coronavirus,” a doctor at the Services Hospital told The News Tuesday. PM’s Special Assistant on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza said the cases in Pakistan have more than doubled in the last 24 hours. This is not surprising. The disease has spread in 106 countries. All 19 patients have contracted virus from abroad, and are stable. There is no evidence of local spread as yet. If we act responsibly we can avoid the virus spread. The most important thing is to limit the spread of coronavirus is by ensuring hygiene; washing hands properly, avoid touching our face and keeping a distance from sick people. “The government is working hard to contain the spread, but we all need to play our role in this fight,” he added. Post Credit: The News
How Fatal Are Medication Errors Worldwide, And In Pakistan? How To Avoid These Nearly everyone, especially in Pakistan has gone through, bad experiences in the health sector. Things like the wrong diagnosis, disasters due to doctors’ negligence – even if it is bad handwriting, ill prescription, false mention of dose timings so on and so forth. These kinds of instances are prevalent among government hospitals. Though these ill practices are present worldwide, in Pakistan, these are up to an alarming frequency. Just to quote one instance, Umer Farooq Bajwa died at Sheikh Zaid Hospital due to a medication error during his liver transplant. Another unfortunate incident happened last week. Umer Farooq Bajwa went to hospital for a liver transplant for his mother and died due to a medication error that occurred due to human error. Wish we could save an innocent soul. #Instacare #healthcareforall #HealthCareTech pic.twitter.com/0qU2qg90zl — InstaCare (@InstaCarePk) February 7, 2020 There are innumerable cases of such treatments. The irony is most of these can be avoided without any excessive measure. What is a Medical Error? Simply put, a medication error is a difference between what the doctor intended and what he carried forward. In this definition, the quacks haven’t been considered because the whole treatment of quacks is a medication error since they don’t know what they are doing most of the time. A scholarly definition is given by Grober and Bohnen which says that a medical error is “the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (an error of execution) or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (an error of planning) (Reason, 1990). An unintended act (either of omission or commission) or one that does not achieve its intended outcome (Leape, 1994). Deviations from the process of care, which may or may not cause harm to the patient (Reason, 2001).” Types of Medical Errors: There are several types of medication errors. One problem in listing down all of these is that in different situations, certain kinds of error might or might not occur. For example, while using a digital platform for medicine management (like EMR or EHR), there are far fewer chances of the wrong prescriptions in terms of handwriting (as doctors are notorious for their handwriting). But just to name a few, the following is the list based on a study done by US National Library of Medicine and National Institute of Health: Diagnostic: Error or delay in diagnosis Failure to employ indicated tests Use of outmoded tests or therapy Failure to act on results of monitoring or testing Treatment: Error in performance of an operation, procedure, or test Error in administering treatment Error in the dose or method of using a drug Avoidable delay in treatment or in responding to an abnormal test Inappropriate care Preventive: Failure to provide prophylactic treatment Inadequate monitoring or follow-up of treatment Other: Failure of communication Equipment failure Other system failures Medical Errors around the world: As said before, medication errors are prevalent all around the world. In the US, 1.3 million people are injured annually due to medication errors. Around 9,000 to 24,000 people die annually in Canada. due to negligence of hospital administration. According to a study by the European Commission, the prevalence of medication errors in Latvia is 32%, in Denmark, it is 29%, and in Poland, it is 28%. Journal of Anesthesiology reports that in India, medication errors occur around 5.2 million times annually. And only in Delhi, 82 out of every thousand prescriptions contain an error. Medical Errors in Pakistan According to a study done by the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association, quotes a prescription error of 39.28%. It is found that 5.5% of pharmacists, 2.6% nurses, and 1.1% of physicians are negligent towards their practices. Only a handful of medical errors get attention in our media. And in fact, thousands of cases go without the attention of even the patient himself. No one will question that the deterioration of their health even after a check-up by a doctor, can be the result of a medication error. People make statements like this doctor doesn’t have shifa and that’s all. Only a handful of people understand that the negligence of the system could result in this unfortunate event, not the doctor himself. Abdul Latif Shaikh, president of the Pakistan Society of Health-System Pharmacists (PSHP), quoted that 5,00,000 people die annually due to some kind of medication error in Pakistan. Can we avoid Medical Errors? These errors cannot be removed over nightly but can be reduced significantly in a day just by employing a reliable and efficient Electronic Management Record system (EMR). By using an EMR software, issues like prescription errors, dosage errors, and wrong diagnosis will be reduced considerably. Plus, the efficiency that comes is additional. A lot of errors occur because of the workload on doctors. When an EMR software will share their managerial workload, they will be easily able to put more effort into diagnosis and spend more time with the patient. And hopefully, save a few beautiful lives.
