Third-Leading Cause Of Death In America

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.

In the United States alone there are 98,000 deaths per year caused by low quality health care (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013, pg. 2). This statistic is disturbing because the errors that resulted in death were errors that were preventable. The intent of this chapter is to bring awareness to health care providers that are able to make a change in the quality of health care. In current practice patients are subjected to medication errors, preventable hospitalizations, premature death, and poor care provided due to racial, ethical, or low-income factors.

The main objective of healthcare professionals is to provide the best quality of patient care and the highest level of patient safety. To achieve that objective, there are many organizations that help improve the quality of care. One of the best examples is the Joint Commission. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is not free from total risks. In healthcare activities, there are possible errors, mistakes, near miss and adverse events. All of those negative events are preventable. But, it is clear that errors caused in healthcare result in thousands of deaths in the United States.

It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).

This documentary video is very informative and very useful as eye-opener to all that works in the healthcare industry. John Hopkins patient safety expert have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. This large number, victims of medical error, leads to a stigma that people became questioning and doubting the capabilities of healthcare providers resulting on losing trust. This video “Chasing Zero” is a reminder that all nurses, doctors and all the people that works in healthcare industries should be very cautious on the care they provide to patients. A single error can hurt and worst, it can kill someone. This video made me realize as a nurse, that anyone can make a big mistake regardless of years

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

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

The changes in healthcare over the last several years have been dramatic. All parties, providers, insurers, and the Federal Government are looking for ways to reduce cost and increase quality. The report by the Institute for Medicine in 1999, “To Err is Human” spurred increasing scrutiny in medical care to improve quality at same and looking for ways to reduce risk to patients and increase safety. Discussion of solutions

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)

Quality and safety initiatives are driving important changes in the U.S. health care delivery system. Quality in health care is defined as the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes are consistent with current professional knowledge (Nash & Goldfarb, 2006, p. 6). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err is Human, states that most of the medical errors are resulted from system error and processes. Medical Errors account for 98,000 deaths per year in the US. They increase disability, costs, and decrease confidence in the US health care system (Pham, Aswani, Rosen, Lee, Huddle, Weeks, & Pronovost, 2012). And because of this, the IOM established six aims for improvement. These are safety (care should be as safe for patients in health care facilities as in their homes); effectiveness (the science and evidence behind health care should be applied and serve as the standard in the delivery of care); efficiency (care and service should be cost effective, and waste should be removed from the system); timeliness (patients should experience no waits or delays in receiving care and service); patient-centeredness (the system of care should revolve around the patient, respect patient preferences, and put the patient in control); and equity (unequal treatment should be a fact of the past; disparities in care should be eradicated). These six aims should be measured in order to assess whether the health care

Atrial Fibrillation is one of the leading causes of death across the globe. (1) AF increases an individual’s risk of stroke by 4 to 6 times on average. (2)(3) The risk increases with age, in people older than 80 years old; AF is the straight cause of 1 in 4 strokes. (3) Even though Atrial Fibrillation can be considered a mild arrhythmia; it is still associated with serious morbidity and mortality. (4)(5) First, it raises the risk of having thromboembolism and stroke, due to blood stasis in the left atrium. Stroke is commonly caused by a thrombus or clot. In patients with AF, the thrombus or clot is usually comes from the left atrial appendage (a small sac in the left upper chamber of the heart). Because stroke in AF patients may be particularly distressing, it is quite important to identify patients who are possibly at high risk before it occurs to them. Second, the irregularly irregular heart beat can cause symptoms palpitations, shortness of breath, anxiety and reduced exercise tolerance in the patient, so it requires medical consideration. Third, Atrial Fibrillation causes a lot of cardiac and hemodynamic changes including decreased myocardial systolic function and cardiomyopathy caused by tachycardia. (6)(7) Sometimes AF is identified only with the onset of a stroke or a transient ischemic attack (TIA or "mini-stroke"). (8) Whether if it is asymptomatic or symptomatic, AF is a progressive disease, worsening with time and it is accounting for

“If people understood that doctors weren’t divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish”(Richard Selzer). “Between 210,000 and 440,000 patients, each year go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.”(-Journal of Patient Safety). When medical malpractice happens, many people blame the health care worker involved. Is it entirely fair to shift the blame are the institutions and practices not the ones that deceived them. Three changes needed to be made to cut medical malpractice are reducing the understaffing of nurses, having effective medical practices, and implementing proper communication.

Preventable errors, including those that occur as a result of poor communication, surgical complications, accidents, etc. cost Americans millions of dollars each year (Blouin, 2013). In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” that described the lack of safety in the US healthcare system. The report was a ground-breaking publication, triggering research and articles that highlighted the need for safer practices and quality standards in the US health care system (Stelfox, Palmisani, Scurlock, Orav, Bates, 2006). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have attempted to address these shortcomings by instituting legislation that ensures all individuals in the US receive quality healthcare at a reasonable cost (Nash et al., 2016).

Errors in the healthcare field can be very detrimental to a patient’s health. According to a medical study done by John Hopkins University, researchers said that medical errors are the number three causes of

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