Medical Errors

However even though there are many problem with the Pap smear, the most important error is failure of women to get a Pap smear (Dziura, 2009). As it is harder to monitor any changes in the cervical cancer if you don’t turn up for regular

November, 1999 brought about a release of a report prepared by the prestigious National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) making medical mistakes and their magnitude of the risks to patients receiving hospital care to common public knowledge. The IOM concluded that between 44,000-98,000 deaths occur annually because of medical errors. Among a general agreement was that system deficiencies were the most important factor in the problem and not incompetent or negligent physicians and other caregivers (Sultz & Young, 2010). An excellent example of a system deficiency that leads to a crisis and sentinel event was the highly publicized overdose of Heparin to Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins in 2007.

Medical errors can be defined as errors, adverse events and preventable adverse events. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defined all three components of medical errors and they are as follows: errors occur when the intended plan of action fails and

When assessing whether a no fault regime is better than a negligence rule in dealing with the causes and consequences of medical error, it would seem prudent to first understand the meaning of the term “medical error”. Liang defines medical error as ‘a mistake, inadvertent occurrence, or unintended event in health-care delivery which may, or may not, result in patient injury’ (2000, p.542). The consequence of these errors (or adverse events) that lead to patient injury, and the method by which we determine and administer compensation for such injuries, has been the source of heated debate amongst scholars in recent

In the article “Why the American Medical Establishment Cannot Reduce Medical Errors” by Philips Levitt, the main points are the “incompetent” physician are the reasons behind hundreds of thousands of deaths in America and what the hospital can do to prevent the deaths. After I read the article, I was surprised that “…a small number of doctors—about two percent—are responsible for half the cases in which a patient is seriously and unnecessarily harmed in the process of being treated” (Levitt) because I was shocked that about two percent of doctors are liable for half of the case of the harm or deaths of the patient and this is the reason why it cost the people so much for health care. For example, “…$300 billion a year are spent on the waste

Every day, physicians, advance practice nurses, nurses, pharmacists, and other hospital personnel recognize and correct errors and usually prevent harm. Errors, defined as the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim, do not all result in injury or harm. Errors that do cause injury or harm are sometimes called preventable adverse events and means the injury is thought to be due to a medical intervention, not the underlying condition of the patient. Errors that result in serious injury or death, considered sentinel events by the Joint

When it comes to health care in the United States, the initial thought many people have are the many growing controversies concerning Obamacare, vaccinations, and making sure all Americans have access to affordable and quality health care. However, what many people fail to realize is a certain aspect in the medical community that, since the early 80’s with the infamous study by Berkman and Frankel, is increasing at such a tremendous rate that the Columbia Medical Review has referred to it as an “epidemic in the medical community.” The statistics regarding the number of individuals who die each year due to medical errors is rising; slowly becoming a major concern in the field. Doctors are busy individuals and at the end of the day still

At this level, medical errors are responsible for claiming 44,000 to 96,000 lives a year. The list is there to prevent and protect patient safety. Common medical errors can be failure to understand how much of a medicine should be taken and

The problem of medical errors, and in particular medication errors, prompts an immediate attention from health care industries as it demands conservative actions from health care providers. Although many health-care providers value the importance of patient safety and quality health care, very few admit their faults at the occurrence of errors that could jeopardize the health of many individuals. “Medication errors represent the largest single cause of errors in the hospital setting, accounting for more than 7,000 deaths annually- more than the number of deaths resulting from workplace injuries.” (Katheen & Mason, 2005). The loss of these lives hold health-care providers and current standards accountable while many other untraceable errors resulting in injuries and disabilities go unnoticed.

Medical error reports can vary by type of error, for example, rule violations, non-standardized medical practices, medication and diagnostic testing errors, management practices, patient misconduct, and insurance fraud. Research suggests that many medical errors go unreported and that nurses are pivotal in understanding barriers to reporting and ways to improve the reporting process. Nurses are believed to a critical part of the medical error reporting issue because they are the individuals that work hands on with patients (the most), have a duty and responsibility for patient advocacy, and changes, resulting from error reporting, that improve direct patient care practices impact nurse’s day to day actives (Wolf & Hughes, 2008). Evidence suggests

Medical errors are avoidable mistakes in the health care. These errors can take place in any type of health care institution. Medical errors can happen during medical tests and diagnosis, administration of medications, during surgery, and even lab reports, such as the mixing of two patients’ blood samples. These errors are usually caused by the lack of communication between doctors, nurses and other staff. A medical error could cause a severe consequence to the patient in cases consisting of severe injuries or cause/effect any health conditions, and even death. According to recent studies medical errors are not the third leading cause of death in the United States. (Walerius. 2016)

As previously mentioned the institute of Medicine report dated 1999, every year 44,000 to 98,000 patients die from medical errors. Almost 7,000 of them were medication errors that could have been prevented (ORH, 2004). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Pubmed, 2012). Medical errors are not a new issue and have been around for a long time. The questions come to mind are how does the problem of medical errors affect our healthcare delivery system? Also how can these medical errors be prevented and reduced?

In today's modern world with plenty of technology, it is hard to believe that we cannot figure out how to reduce Medical errors. The issue of medical error is not new in health care organizations. It has been in spot light since 1990's, when government did research on sudden increase in number of death in the hospitals. According to Lester, H., & Tritter, J. (2001), "Medical error is an actual or potential serious lapse in the standard of care provided to a patient, or harm caused to a patient through the performance of a health service or health care professional." Medical errors

Medication error (ME) is a significant problem within our health care system, in terms of patient harm and cost. In July 2002, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) cited the need to reduce medication errors as a top priority. Several studies suggest that medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, at least 7,000 inpatient deaths occur annually as a direct

Reporting errors can strengthen the processes of care and also enhance the quality of care. To effectively avoid further errors that can cause harm to patients, improvements must be made on the incidents or events reported in reporting system. Reporting errors can help the organizations better understand what happened, identify the factors that cause the occurrence of errors or incidents, determine its frequency and predict whether it could happen again and find an intervention to prevent or to