TORONTO - Last Updated Tue, 25 May 2004 9:32:47      Thousands of Canadians die every year because of mistakes in their treatment at hospitals, a new study shows. About 185,000 patients suffer an accident in surgery or a medical oversight every year, 40 per cent of which are preventable, according to the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The complications could result in disabilities or longer hospital stays. The study shows that between 9,000 and 24,000 patients die because of those errors.  Researchers looked at 3,745 hospital charts for patients in 25 hospitals in five provinces during 2000. They found 858 patients had suffered 1,133 injuries or complications. Of those, 15 patients were left permanently disabled and 40 died.

"We found that surgical-related events and medication-related events were the two most common types of adverse events," said Dr.Ross Baker, one of the study's authors. "I think that's typical of many hospitals, so the question I would have (is): What are we doing in hospitals to focus in those areas to improve care?"   The adverse events found include: Delayed diagnosis of cancer. Delayed diagnosis of heart disease. Drug overdose. Inadequate or faulty equipment. Communication errors. Patients discharged too soon. Surgical errors, such as damaging other organs or removing wrong organs.

Older patients are more likely to suffer adverse events, probably because they have more complicated medical needs, researchers say. The key to improving the situation is in changing the culture of finger-pointing when something goes wrong, say health care professionals. "The days of blame and shame need to be replaced by a curiosity to understand why these issues happen and a willingness to put in place processes and procedures that will deal with things in our environment that are risky for our patients," said Anne McGuire, CEO of the Annapolis Health District in Nova Scotia. Written by CBC News Online Staff PS     Chiropractors have been offering services for more that a century that are non drug and non surgical approaches to the same pain problems that medical doctors use these very risky procedures on. Wouldn't it make sense to try chiropractic first? Dr. Ouellette