Patient Safety/Quality Care/Improvement Case Study

Reducing the incidence of medical error by improving the accuracy and clarity of medical records.

This article is prospective and it is analytic. It is based on factual approaches obtained from articles and books. It is based on the statistics obtained from data about the medical error in the

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?

Blendon, R. DesRoches, C. Brodie, M., Benson, J. Rosen, A., & Schneider, A. (2002). Views of practicing physicians and the public on medical errors. New England Journal of Medicine. 347, 1933-1940.

Contraindicated care and health care related mistakes harm millions patients and contribute to the overall cost of health care. According to the HRSA’s 2012 annual report to congress: “National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ) which cited the following examples of health care related mistakes:

Medical errors have adverse effect on health care organization structure because it put a question mark on health profession’s reputation. The medical error definitely can cause harm to the patient or even the death. Medical errors can happen anywhere in healthcare system: in hospitals, clinics, surgery rooms. Medical mistakes can arise from doctors, nurses, surgeons, hospital administration, and many others. Medical errors affect the health care organizational structure, culture, and social in many ways. Medication errors have severe direct and indirect effects on health care organizational structure, and culture is usually the outcome of breakdowns in a system of care. Many reasons can involve in medical errors such as, miscommunication

Since the 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), To Err is Human, there have been many new efforts and initiatives to reduce the incidence of medical errors. While some people argued the report exaggerated the magnitude of the problem, others were concerned about the annual number of preventable medical errors.1 Medical errors include, but not limited to medication errors, hospital acquired infections, surgical mistakes, and communication failure.2

Unfortunately, physician's perceptions are not objective outcome measures (Schenarts and Schenarts, 2012). It’s very dangerous the fact that providers rely on the electronic system to catch our errors. Furthermore, some of the most notable benefits of EHR include providers’ ability to access patients’ medical history almost anywhere, at any time. Nonetheless, the heavy reliance on health information technology is a major concern. It has the potential to cause harm to patients instead of the intended purpose of patient safety. Some examples of this include latent errors that do not manifest until they have already caused harm to the patient, or system failures which can cause a delay in time for healthcare professionals to review records thus, causing a delay in patient care. In addition, patient orders can be lost or miscommunicated. Healthcare providers rely on with confidence that the computer system will seamlessly promote the quality care of patients. According to Fiercehealthcare.com (2017), because of deficiencies in the eclinicalworks software, patients could not rely on the accuracy of their medical records. In addition, one patient was

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)

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

The United States healthcare system currently has a unique level in terms of quality of the system of medical care. Regardless of this fact, many issues suggest that when it comes to assuring high quality for everyone. Not all is well since the current health care system is a top economic and social problem to the Americans (Health Care Problems, 2015). Many issues such as medical errors, quality of care, that can impact a health care organization (hospitals, clinics, and physicians). One of those issues is the medical errors. The medical errors occur when a hospital or doctor provides an inappropriate service of care. Medical errors defined as human errors in health care, and it seems to reflect the deterioration of the relationship

Reporting errors are essential to error prevention. There is two type of Reporting systems, mandatory reporting systems and voluntary reporting systems. The mandatory reporting systems it is for errors associated with serious injuries or death. In mandatory reporting systems, there are penalties or fines for wrong-doing and this is detected by state regulatory programs that have the authority to investigate specific cases. The aims of these systems to assuring for the patients that there is a report and investigate and appropriate follow-up for serious errors and action is taken. In addition, they encourage healthcare organizations to improve patient safety to avoid the potential penalties and public exposure. Moreover, they require all healthcare

Medical errors have a negative effect on health care employer shape because it placed a question mark on health career’s popularity. The clinical mistakes actually can be the reason to harm the patient or maybe the death. Medical mistakes can appear anywhere in the healthcare system such as, in hospitals, clinics, and surgical operation rooms. medical errors can stand up from doctors, nurses, surgeons, health facility management, and many others. medical mistakes affect the health care organizational structure, tradition, and social in lots of ways. medicinal drug errors have severe direct and indirect outcomes of health care organizational structure, and way of life is typically the final results of breakdowns in a system of

Everyone fears hearing the word “cancer” or “heart disease” during a doctor visit. These conditions bring with them expectations of suffering and death, and for good reason. Around 599,711 deaths were due to heart disease and another 582,623 are the result of cancer in 2012, making up the first and second leading cause of death for that year. However, you might be surprised to learn what comes in at number three in terms of the general death rate. An astounding 200,000 to 400,000 people die each year due to medical errors. Of course, this fact is one you likely haven’t heard before.

As a Supervisor of a Health Information Management department within a large health care organization, one of my responsibilities is overseeing the corrections of chart errors made by providers and authors. These corrections encompass both clinical and non-clinical charting errors. I do applaud the strong emphasis placed on patient safety and the prevention of medical errors; however, patient safety does not stop with the completion of the patient 's clinical care, it should also be defined by accurate and correct documentation of patient care. If it is not documented, it didn 't happen. The best clinical care is negated by poor and erroneous chart documentation. Common examples are documenting on the incorrect patient, incorrect dates of birth, spelling/comprehension errors, copy and paste errors, erroneous patient registration errors, etc.) Therefore striving for excellent clinical care should be intertwined with correct documentation of the patient 's care.