2003-03-15 One would think that in this day of rising medical costs, mostly due to high insurance premiums doctors and hospitals pay for malpractice insurance, that someone would take a stand. Today, you have doctors protesting the high costs, and even some leaving their home state to go elsewhere, where the costs are lower.
One would think that the medical industry, the hospitals and doctors in particular would make an effort to put into practice some plans and methods that would reduce the chances of mistakes, thus lowering the number of possible lawsuits and high insurance costs. One would think JCAHO or someone would find that part of any accreditation was to make sure there was unit harmonisation. I'm sure Mr. Herringer himself would sing a different tune if either himself or a loved one of his was seriously injured or died from a conversion error when given a dose of a potentially lethal drug. Some have hypothesised that the reason for not making SI the standard is the nurse Six-pack may have to tell a patient his vital statistics in FFU, and that could be hard if the instruments are reading in SI. Decisions on unit usage should not be left in the hands of the people at the bottom of the totem pole, but at the top. It is much safer for the patient if the hospital staff goofs by converting a wrong number for a patients benefit, then the other way around where a dosage error could result. One way to assure accurate use of SI by medical staff is to insist that no person can practice in the field of medicine unless they were CAMS certified. A person MUST have a working knowledge of all SI units before one can either graduate from a medical college or even continue to practice in a medical facility. It could even help metrication if the medical industry went completely SI. Patients could be encouraged to know their stats in SI and to forget FFU, and even help promote the sale of scales and lineals graduated in SI units for the sake of measuring body mass and height. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, 2003-03-11 09:28 Subject: [USMA:25106] [Fwd: Standards Question] > This is an exchange I had recently with one of the folks at the Joint > Commission on the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO). Read > from the bottom up for proper chronological order. > > Jim > > James Frysinger wrote: > > > > Dear Mr. Herringer, > > > > Thank you for your reply; I'm including your webmaster on this so that > > she knows I was able to get through. > > > > I am rather surprised that JCAHO does not at least have a position > > strongly recommending that hospitals use only metric units in their > > records. As you are probably aware, US Pharmacopia has a paper out > > cautioning people about the risks of improper medication caused by unit > > confusion. > > > > Feedback from around the country indicates that some tell patients what > > their heights, "weights", and temperature are in metric and some in US > > customary units. But it seemed reasonable that behind the scenes there > > might be a standard to stick with one system of units; the use of metric > > units in pharmacy would dictate that the system chosen would be metric. > > I wonder if JCAHO checks to ensure that dual-unit organizations have > > some sort of safeguards mechanism in place to protect patients from > > mis-dosing. > > > > As for the calorie versus joule issue, that's a matter of old metric > > unit versus the modern SI metric unit. Time will solve that problem as > > everyone eventually catches up. > > > > Again, thanks for your response. > > > > regards, > > Jim Frysinger > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > > Mr. Frysinger: > > > > > > Your email was forwarded. JCAHO has no position on the use of metric > > > measurements or the use of the calorie as opposed to the SI unit, thejoule. > > > that would be each accredited organization's decision. > > > > > > J.... H.... > > > Associate Director > > > Standards Interpretation Group > > > Division of Accreditation Operations > .... > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > > Dear sirs: > .... > > > Our Introductory Physics course is a service course for the College of > > > Charleston and many of the students are heading for medical and medical > > > service fields. We see a lot of pre-med, pre-pharm, pre-nursing, and > > > pre-therapy students. Therefore we try to ensure we include medical issues > > > and examples in our teaching. This includes the use of the SI > > > (International System of Units, the modern metric system). > > > > > > Informal surveys amongst our colleagues indicates that some hospitals use > > > only metric units for patient data (height, mass, etc.) while others use > > > mixtures of units --- at least as seen by the patients. I have accumulated > > > a number of common questions and now forward them to you with the hope that > > > you can help us answer them for our students. > > > > > > What is the JCAHO position on the recording and use of patient data in > > > metric units only? If the JCAHO permits use of non-metric patient data, > > > what safeguards of patient safety (especially for pharmacology, but in other > > > > > > areas as well) does JCAHO look for in its accreditation process? If this > > > is not an issue in the view of JCAHO, what can we tell the students when > > > they ask about their risk of becoming human analogs to the Mars Climate > > > Orbiter, which was lost due to unit mix-ups? > > > > > > What is the JCAHO position on the use of the obsolescent unit, the Calorie > > > (kcal), as opposed to the SI unit, the joule? > > > > > > Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. If they seem > > > somewhat pointed, consider the source: our inquisitive students. > > > > > > regards, > > > Jim Frysinger > > > > -- > > James R. Frysinger > > Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist > > Senior Member, IEEE > > > > http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Office: > > Physics Lab Manager, Lecturer > > Dept. of Physics and Astronomy > > University/College of Charleston > > 66 George Street > > Charleston, SC 29424 > > 843.953.7644 (phone) > > 843.953.4824 (FAX) > > > > Home: > > 10 Captiva Row > > Charleston, SC 29407 > > 843.225.0805 >
