In the previous blog post, we discussed how important it is for a person who has breast cancer to receive an early diagnosis and quick treatment. If you recall, delaying chemotherapy after surgery for longer than 90 days lead to a sharp decline in survival. That is harrowing, but it is far from the only time when prompt diagnosis and treatment can mean the difference between survival and death.
A person who has breast cancer has a good chance of survival in many cases. Typically, the stage of the cancer when it is diagnosed and the swiftness of treatment can both impact the ultimate outcome for the patient. This is something that applies to most types of cancer, so it is always imperative that the patient receives a diagnosis early and gets the treatment started as soon as possible.
In our previous blog post, we discussed how patient identification errors can largely be prevented. In fact, one theory we noted in that post claimed that all patient identification errors might be preventable. Those types of errors are only one small facet of the errors that can occur in surgery.
One of the issues that can lead to surgical errors and other medical errors is patient identification. The Emergency Care Research Institute conducted a study that found that most errors having to do with patient identification are preventable. In fact, the results of the study show that it might be possible to prevent all patient identification errors.