Medical Errors in Healthcare System Essay examples

One of the recommendations for healthcare organizations to employ in an effort to reduce the number of errors is to advocate for voluntary error reporting nationally while conducting research and developing tools for patient safety. This way, information about errors can be gathered and prevented from reoccurring at health care sites and by health care providers. Voluntary error reporting will act as a warning of potential or actual errors and suggest ways to avoid them in the future.

The goal of this paper is to investigate the application of technology to reduce error in healthcare. The Institute of Medicine reports: to Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System in 1999, which estimates of more than a million injuries and 100,000 deaths attributable to medical errors annually. This numbers of deaths are errors that resulted from medical errors..

Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency

Cognitive errors of omission and commission are the most common types of medical errors that will happen in the workplace environment.

Each year medical errors cause more than 400,000 American deaths and at least 10-20 times that number experience serious harm. Researchers say that is equivalent to “three 747 airplanes crashing each day.” Medical errors rank as the third-leading cause of death in America. Therefore, patient safety is a national concern.

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 Institute of Medicine released a report in 1999 titled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System concerning the number of medical error related deaths. The report states that between 44,000 and 98,000 medical error related deaths occur each year in hospitals across the country (Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. S., 2000) In response to this report, the Institute of Medicine released Crossing the Quality Chasm: Health: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century that outlines six aims for the future of the healthcare system: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, equitable (Institute of Medicine, 2001). These aims set to establish the quality of healthcare across the country. Quality is defined by the Institute of Medicine as ““the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (2001).

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)

New research estimates up to 440,000 Americans are dying annually from preventable hospital errors. This puts medical errors as the third leading cause of death in the United States, underscoring the need for patients to protect themselves and their families from harm, and for hospitals to make patient safety a priority (Hospital Errors are the Third Leading Cause of Death in United States (n.d). This is a staggering statistic and shows the need for immediate changes in the administration of medications.

Wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong patient errors are avoidable safety issues. Nearly 1.9 trillion dollars are spent on medical errors each year in the United States (Catalano & Fickenscher, 2008). Between 1995 and 2007, 691 wrong-site surgeries have been reported to The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event data repository (AHC Media LLC, 2008). In 2003 in response to the outcry for better patient safety The Joint Commission

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) which has been on the forefront in undertaking research studies, pertaining to the prevalence of medical errors; systemic flaws are largely to be blamed for the high number of medical errors (BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2011). The Hastings centre also shares the same sentiments when they state that “Many errors can be traced to flaws in complex systems of healthcare delivery, not flaws in individual performance” (The Hastings centre 2011, 5). These revelations come amid increased blame on healthcare workers for their apparent neglect of safe healthcare practices. IOM gives an example of poor communication between healthcare providers as one of the main problems

According to a 2002 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report, about 7,000 people were estimated to die each year from medication errors - about 16 percent more deaths than the number attributable to work-related injuries (6,000 deaths).[citation needed] Medical errors affect one in 10 patients worldwide. One extrapolation suggests that 180,000 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury.[14] One in five Americans (22%) report that they or a family member have experienced a medical error of some

This is the case for too many people in the world today. Medical errors happen too often and need to be reduced drastically and not just chalked up to a “complication” in surgery or other medical procedures. For example, the outrageous number of deaths due to health care error,

Quality healthcare, patient safety, cost-effectiveness, and satisfaction of the stakeholder are major concerns of healthcare leaders and top priorities in the strategic plans of their organizations (Casida & Pinto-Zipp, 2008). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report of 1999 estimated that malpractice and errors in healthcare cause between 44,000 and 98,000(Miller & LaFramboise, 2009; Paterick, Paterick, Waterhouse, & Paterick, 2009). Medication errors, related to the incompetence of healthcare providers and inefficient medication management systems, are the third main cause of death after heart disease and cancer (Brady, Malone & Fleming, 2009; Carroll, 2004).

In today’s fast paced healthcare environment, patient safety as well as healthcare quality has become a major priority. A growing focus on patient safety and the increasing medical errors has made various healthcare management teams more proactive in identifying and preventing potential risks for patients. While a great deal of progress has been made in recognizing most medical errors, it is also important to note that in a healthcare environment there are a number of factors involved, therefore the strategies used to reduce them vary as well. So, despite a healthcare provider’s overall reputation, experience, skills or knowledge in the healthcare field, there is always a slight possibility for a medical error to take place, similar to our case of Mrs. Jonesky and Samantha Jones.