It can happen in pharmacies as well. A friend, Andrea, gut her scrip mixed up with Andrew, same last name. Imagine being a 70-something man opening up your heart medication, only to find a diaphram instead.
Wasn’t that the plot of an episode of Blossom?
My ex looks nothing like her siblings. Her siblings and her parents are all blond and blue-eyed, she’s the only dark-eyed brunette with beige skin instead of pasty white. Her dissimilarity to her immediate family is really, really noticeable and she once removed childhood photos of herself from a high school display because people were wondering “who’s the mulatto kid?” (Everyone taking music had to bring in toddler photos and people had to guess who was who).
She was starting to worry that she was the offspring of an affair… then she met her aunt who had been living in Australia for decades. Her father’s sister is practically her twin, except for a 40 year age difference. They even have similar personality traits. So yes, my ex had inherited a ton of traits from her father’s maternal side of the family, even though her father mostly looked like his paternal relatives.
I’m very happy that at the lab I go to to get my blood drawn for INR checks, the phlebotomist always verifies my surname and DOB before doing anything.
In high school, one of my good friends once was given the transcript for an Eric Surname instead of Erica Surname. Fortunately, she caught the mistake before she sent the transcript to any universities.
My friend was told based on blood lab results that she was miscarrying and spent a miserable night before calling the next day and finding out it was not her that was miscarrying, it was another woman in the lab at the same time as her. Thankfully she did not go ahead with a D&C based on those results.
Hospitals now are obsessed with newborn ID and safety. When I gave birth to my kids, ages 5 and 1, they both had 2 ID bracelets, (we both witnessed them being put on immediately after the birth, I had matching ones) names and id numbers on their bassinets, and alarms on the wings if they were removed. Every time they were removed from my sight and brought back to me the bracelets were checked again. I don’t know how long this practice has been in effect, but I am 32 and my baby book contains my bracelet from when I was a newborn, although I don’t know if then they were put on in sight of the parents immediately after birth, or later on.
Wow, that’s a hell of a long time to be pregnant. I’m surprised they didn’t induce after the first, oh, 10 months or so. 
I worked in medical laboratories and then medical laboratory information systems for a few decades.
Parts of you laboratory records could easily be mixed up. There are often simple transposition errors and the like. But some are more amusing e.g. doctors father showed up pregnant because an employee stole his number to get a free test. I suspect that stolen number to get free tests have increased greatly as prices have gone up greatly.
I have only seen one case where the entire medical record, all of it, everything, was labeled wrongly. Patient B had the same name as patient A. Patient A died and B’s records were sent to archive so this old man went in one day and the doctor said “this record shows you are dead” sort of thing.
Another person chiming in to agree it is possible that there was an error on the clerical side. If the person transcribing the report either was given the wrong patient information in the dictation or incorrectly entered the data from the wrong patient, the report could have been attached to your medical record number instead of the other patient’s. Heck, with the point and click systems they have now, it’s possible your doctor could have clicked on the wrong person and put in the information. I would check with the office manager.
No you don’t! There’s a bunch of folks with your last name living within a stone’s throw from me! Right next door, even. And right up the road. There’s more of your surname in the local phone book than my surname, even!
Re the OP: I see test results misfiled in the wrong charts frequently. At least there, one can see the name on the result doesn’t match the chart name. What’s worse is when the wrong info is entered by MD or RN or other into the progress notes section. Those may go unnoticed unless it’s not congruent with the case, such as describing a 25 year old hispanic female as a 68 year old pakistani man.
Errors happen. And new technology to reduce errors always seems to open the door onto brand-new errors never seen before.
I’m aware of the whole bracelet thing for newborns. My daughter is only 5, and she did have a bracelet as did my wife, but due to the circumstances surrounding the delivery (high-risk pregnancy, emergency C-section, stress and panic ensued), I didn’t notice if the baby had a bracelet when I saw her immediately after the birth. She had one when they brought her into the recovery room, but when I worry about it I wonder if they added the bracelet after she was out of my and my wife’s sight, and while she was in the company of other bracelet-less newborns.
It’s not something I worry about often.
Well in that neck of the woods, sure! Around here, it’s weeeeeird.
(This is also why I ask patients how they pronounce their last name if it’s unclear, and how they prefer to be addressed; I’m used to being on the other side of that situation.)
As a medical student on the trauma service, my job was to write the notes by transcribing the information shouted at me by the various doctors who were actually working on the patients (these were folks fresh out of the ambulance). On the last day of the rotation, we were really busy and I was entrusted with the task of doing two of these at once. Fortunately, both patients were very straightforward, one with a minor knife wound and one who had had his eye poked out with a stick. I got all the information down accurately and thought I was hot shit…
…until I got a call from a puzzled opthomalogist wondering why we had sent him a guy with a cut on his shoulder with instructions to remove the left eye. :smack:
(that smiley seems more appropriate than usual for this story…)
Of course, now we all have to wonder if you meant **right **eye or **left **eye–another swap one wishes to avoid.
Only tangentially related, but this gave me a wry chuckle. I’m sitting in the exam room waiting for my doc for a routine physical, so I am looking at the posters around the room. One was directed at staff:
We have 2000 sinks
gallons of hot water
soap dispensers
.
.
.
SO WHY AREN’T YOU WASHING YOUR HANDS??
Now, I understand how crucial washing your hands is, but must it be advertised to patients that the staff isn’t doing it? Or is it a way for patients to be alerted and keep an eye on their doc, or grill them about it?
NHS hospitals do have posters up reminding people to wash their hands and inviting them to ask their nurse, doctor etc to do so if the patient isn’t sure whether they have or not. Keeps everyone happy and honest, I guess.
When my husband went to a sleep doctor, they guy asked if we had noticed a problem and I told him how Steve would do these silent weird motions while he was asleep and I went into this long, detailed description of all the odd motions and how they were very rhythmic and blah blah blah.
The doctor says “Uh huh” and “I see” and “Ah” and then when I get done: “So, he snores.”
:smack:
It could happen, but remember studies are very specific. For instance, to you gasping for air may be apnea but to the doctor it could’ve been athma.
What’s significant to you may be trivial to the study.
Snoring, it’s unlikey no has never snored EVER.
Does this mean the charts weren’t screwed up? No of course not, but you should have the test repeated, because at this point you seem to doubt it so much that even if it’s right you won’t be convinced. The mind has a powerful placebo effect, so do what it takes to get these tests repeated and -> Here it comes -> then you’ll be able to sleep better, whatever the test are