Transcripts

Dr. Joseph Sacco, author of the Health Smart Hospital Handbook…

So for example, people can get infections, and hospitals are notorious for causing infections with bugs that have sort of seen it all, the kind of Rambo bacteria that are resistant to everything. And one of the most common causes of that is failure of hospital staff to wash their hands. And people sometimes are just forgetful, it's not that they want to cause an infection, they just forget. So if you're in bed and your doctor or nurse comes in and wants to examine you say, " Hey, have you washed your hands?" And they should be grateful that you've reminded them of that.

You've certainly heard of people getting the wrong medication in hospitals, Dr. Sacco suggests...

That when you are in the hospital make sure that if the orders for medications are written by hand, make sure to say to your doctor, "Doc, you know I know you're busy, and I know you have a lot to do, but please can you make sure that my medications' orders are written legibly?" And when the nurse comes along to give you the medication say, "Where you clear on what the order was when it was written? And by the way can you explain to me what I'm getting and why I'm getting it?"

And if you ever need a blood transfusion in a hospital...

Before that unit of blood is allowed to run into your body, you might say to the nurse or to the doctor, "Have you made sure that's the correct blood?" Usually the blood will have a label on it, and it should have your name on there. You can get out of bed, and get up and look at the label and make sure it was the blood that was intended for you.