Important health information is missed by an estimated 43% of patients who are 60 or older, as reported by recent research. Significant information, with regards to health care, might be missed due to hearing loss.
Hearing Loss – A Global Epidemic
Hearing loss is a major issue. Globally, one third of people over the age of 65 have debilitating hearing loss.
If we delve further, we see that shockingly only around 30% of those same seniors who suffer with hearing loss have, or use, solutions that would improve their hearing. This trend isn’t good news for medical care as we’ll illustrate next.
The Importance of Communication in Health Care
Miscommunication is one of the leading causes of medical errors, and medical errors are still one of the leading causes of death. A report from Harvard showed that up to 37% of severe injuries that were caused by medical errors could have been prevented with improved communication. Lives could be saved if essential information could be better communicated with patients.
How Medical Care is Impacted by Hearing Loss
When you are speaking with pharmacists, nurses, or doctors there is some info you won’t want to miss so let’s not dwell on statistics.
With regards to reaching health objectives, the advice of health care professionals is a key factor. They may explain what balanced levels are for things like blood sugar or blood pressure. They may tell you to abstain from certain foods to prevent spikes in these levels that can be harmful. Dealing with your condition could get away from you if you miss crucial advice.
You might be in a situation where your physician informs you that you need medical care. You may not get the help that you require because you didn’t fully comprehend what your doctor was saying.
There may be important details about dangerous side effects of medications which your pharmacist is attempting to warn you about. You believe you heard everything but you miss an important detail and end up in the hospital.
Your physical therapist gets you started with a strength-building program but warns you against a particular activity. You miss the advice and suffer a serious fall as a result.
It’s Particularly Challenging to Communicate Medical Information
Communicating medical data is particularly challenging because of a little thing called context. When you have hearing loss, you make use of context to “fill in the blanks” where you missed something. Compensating for hearing loss is something that your brain is actually rather good at. So good, in fact, that it may even convince you that you heard something you didn’t truly hear.
With medical data something as small as a “don’t” or “not” can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A danger zone, goal, or dosage, might be
totally altered with one missed number.
In medical care the smallest details make a big difference. Misunderstanding them has been shown to lead to medical mistakes.
Getting Assistance For Hearing Loss
You could be missing vital medical advice if you suffer from hearing loss. Now is the time to take the correct steps to save your hearing.