We all make mistakes. We make them because we are perfectly human. But a work colleague and I both noticed that the frequency of human errors that affect our daily lives have become so frequent as to be more than merely annoying, but a bit scary. I have to challenge the work habits of many in the workforce today. It is not okay to adopt a cavalier attitude about mistakes. The massive amount of errors supports the claim of employers that it’s difficult to find good help these days. I write this week’s post at the behest of my work colleague. My medical insurance is an HMO, so I need preauthorized referrals from my primary doctor to see specialists and to get certain screenings, like my annual mammogram. I’ll save the discussion about HMOs versus PPOs for a later post. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I requested an authorization for my mammogram. When it arrived, without even a glance, I simply tucked it away in my purse with the intention of eventually finding a moment in the day to call to make the appointment. When I did fish it out several days later, I noticed that the location for the mammogram was different. I found that strange, since the doctor’s administrator and I had agreed that I would return to the previous mammography lab since they were in the best position to compare my previous screenings.
Before I picked up the phone, I looked to make sure the form was mine. The referring doctor was my doctor. My name and birthdate were correct. But then I looked further down the page and saw that this referral was for someone who had already been diagnosed with a malignancy in the breast and this authorization was for some kind of procedure, not a routine mammogram. My response was “What the hell?” I distinctly recall having my mammogram one year ago and no one said anything about cancer! In fact, the exact first sentence on the on the results letter dated March 9, 2016 read, “We are pleased to let you know that the results of your recent Mammogram show no sign of breast cancer.” (Yes, I kept the letter.)
I called my doctor’s office. The administrator who answered the phone was wary since the form did have my name, my birthdate, and my doctor’s name. But, I said to her as gently as I could muster, “I have never been diagnosed with breast cancer. Certainly a mistake has been made.” She committed to letting the doctor know. It turned out a mistake was made. I didn’t get a return call with an apology, even when I mentioned the incident to my doctor at my well woman exam. I did get a re-issuance of the correct authorization referral in the mail after the exam.
My office does a lot of work with foreign students. We give out information on a daily basis and I work very hard to ensure that the information and work we do on behalf of these students is accurate. But on occasion, mistakes are made. In our work, a two second mistake can take days to get corrected and can sometimes have dire consequences on a students’ future in the United States. So we constantly train as immigration regulations are constantly changing. And no mistake goes unacknowledged.
That’s the thing I hate the most, pinpointing where a mistake occurred and identifying who is responsible for it. When dealing with the time, lives, emotions, and prospects of others, I won’t accept a casual attitude towards errors. An apology to the student for the inconvenience is required, followed by doing what is necessary to correct the problem and putting a process or training in place to ensure those kinds of mistakes are mitigated. I’m grateful that I and my staff members are mortified when any of us makes a mistake. I also prefer the if you broke it, you fix it approach.
There is an upside to mistakes, though. Mistakes highlight all sorts of problems. Mistakes can reveal flaws in processes or procedures. They can pinpoint holes in training. They serve as reminders to be clearer in our communication as a wrong date, time, or place can wreck havoc. They help us to seek clarification rather than make an assumption. Mistakes also remind us to take our time as my mother taught me, “Haste makes waste”. Mistakes scream at us to pay attention to what we are doing. Multitasking leads to more errors. Being tired leads to more errors because of our inability to focus. Experts say driving while tired is just a dangerous as driving while drunk. We had an occasion when a series of mistakes brought to light a medical condition. So mistakes can move us toward continuous improvement if given the attention they deserve. But they do have an emotional component that makes it tempting to deny them or to cover them up. Another human tendency is to try to hide our errors in order to avoid embarrassment or to protect our reputation, or to avoid the work involved in taking corrective measures.
I’m a Virgo, the perfectionist and I’m also highly analytical. So, making mistakes hits me particularly hard and I’m more apt to get to the bottom of how a mistake occurred so as to take corrective action to avoid future mistakes. These days, my mistakes are more likely to occur from minor lapses in memory or clumsiness. For example, I’ve lost the ability to go from plate to mouth without spilling something along the way. I was ruining one blouse after another. For a while I tried pre-wash solutions I found on Pinterest, but to only mixed success. So, I finally abandoned my pride in favor of a solution that I knew would work. People who share a meal with me know that I now wear my own handmade bib every time I eat. No more ruined blouses!
I learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others. I’m grateful for having had two older brothers. In many ways, they taught we what “not” to do! But, even still, I do make mistakes. I am, after all, fully human. But I do my best to keep them to a minimum. I humbly wear a bid when I eat and I rely more heavily on archives, calendars, and the memories of others to avoid scheduling mistakes. In truth though, as I’ve gotten older, I haven’t really gotten any easier on myself, especially if those mistakes affect others. I have noticed, however, that in some ways I have gotten easier on others.
I didn’t yell at, lecture, nor expound on the anxiety my doctor’s office caused by sending me the wrong referral. A younger me, would have. But an apology for the error, an acknowledgement of the inconvenience it caused, and a commitment to avoid such errors would have been nice. It could be that the mistake I’m making now is not holding people like that accountable.