A number of years ago I read of a death in the United Kingdom that resulted from misuse of imperial units. Unfortunately I no longer have the details, but as far as I can remember, the baby concerned had an underlying condition. Two different midwives checked and weighed the baby at the post-natal clinic – one used metric units and the other insisted on using imperial units. The result was that no-one noticed that the baby was not putting on weight. The resultant death went to the coroners court and the midwife who insisted on using “proper” units was criticised by the coroner, as was the health authority concerned for allowing “dual” units to be used.
Any switch to metric units HAS to be authorised from the top (or at any rate the organisation that looks after the database concerned). The norm in the United Kingdom is that data entry is in metric units, but most health workers have a conversion chart readily to hands to “translate” for the “older” members of the population. From: USMA [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Trusten Sent: 22 May 2020 17:05 To: Metric List Postings Subject: [USMA 1412] Re: Ancestry survey Dear ListServer Folks, As a hospital pharmacist, I regret to say that, generally, true U.S. metrication of this patient data (patient height and body mass)may not yet be complete. Because American society AND American healthcare workers continue to use feet/inches and pounds on an everyday, colloquial basis, those legacy units persist strongly in the culture, and in most U.S. healthcare cultures, the legacy units continue to be the spoken units of measurement, I.e., when asked for height and weight, patients quote them in feet and pounds, and the nurse or doctor initially records them as such. Once entered into the electronic health information system, however, they are substituted with metric measurements, and posted in kilograms and centimeters only. But they have not yet been exorcized from our midst. SI units are simply not yet “in the entire lingo“ of American healthcare. In the absence of early metric education, pounds and feet are frames of reference that we Americans are unwilling to abandon without good reason, and I fear that good reason will come in the form of a medical Mars Orbiter or Gimli Glider. Paul Trusten Midland, Texas [email protected] On May 22, 2020, at 10:28, Michael Payne <[email protected]> wrote: I believe all US hospitals also use kilogram body mass and centimetres as well as celsius. On 20 May 2020, at 22:24, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote: In the UK hospitals use metric units for height and weight measurements while in Australia everybody uses kilograms. Since <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fancestry.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C99986b6cdcef41de61d708d7fe739526%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637257644691303722&sdata=DoCq0PcnVLYmTr9vaD7agj2QegmKJMax7p6oYj0Fl6U%3D&reserved=0> Ancestry.com is a world-wide organisation, it makes sense to give users the option of either units. From: USMA [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Payne Sent: 20 May 2020 06:29 To: USMA List Server Subject: [USMA 1410] Ancestry survey I recently received a survey from <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fancestry.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C99986b6cdcef41de61d708d7fe739526%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637257644691303722&sdata=DoCq0PcnVLYmTr9vaD7agj2QegmKJMax7p6oYj0Fl6U%3D&reserved=0> Ancestry.com regarding a genetic survey on Covid19, they want to see if anyone who’s had a DNA test with Ancestry has had or been exposed to Covid 19. One of the interesting aspects were when it got near the end of the survey they asked for your height and weight, apart from “American Standard” as they termed it you could choose metric which gave you the option of cm and kg for height and weight. Mike Payne _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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