Another Reason to Communicate Health Awareness

Educating employees on how to avoid medical mistakes may not only save costs, it may save lives.

According to the January issues of Shape magazine, 44,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors and "near misses" in doctor's offices, hospitals and pharmacies. Fortunately, a new law requires reporting of mistakes to a federal database, which researchers will use to analyze problems. At some point in the future, the public can view the findings at the US Department of Health & Human Services web site at www.os.dhhs.gov.

To avoid mistakes, employers can:

• Communicate the URL for the web site so employees and their covered dependents are aware of potential issues.
• Advise employees and covered dependents to ask questions of their doctor so they thoroughly understand a diagnosis and treatment.
• Encourage employees and dependents to review all prescriptions with a pharmacist to ensure that the medication and dosage are correct.