medical errors

Patients rely on health care professionals and institutions for their safety and well-being (“Quality and patient,” 2009). According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2000), “medical errors are responsible for injury in as many as 1 out of every 25 hospital patients; an estimated 48,000-98,000 patients die from medical errors each year. Errors in health care have been estimated to cost more than $5 million per year in a large teaching hospital, and preventable health care-related errors cost the economy from $17 to $29 billion each year”. In addition to the monetary cost of errors, the physical and psychological costs such as pain, loss of loved ones, human suffering, disability or death are the greatest indelible mistakes. Medical errors lead to distrust of the health care system and drive patients away from visiting doctors leading to poor utilization of the health care system and consequently worse health care. Researchers estimate that about half of all medication errors are preventable. They suggest that when a medication error occurs, it is not the result of a single mistake, but rather a series of breakdowns in the health care delivery system therefore, this suggests that more checks and balances in patient care could prevent or remediate medication errors. Medical errors are significant issues affecting patient safety and costs in hospitals often posing dangerous consequences for patients. It is important to understand how medical errors occur so healthcare professionals and managers can identify problems and provide insight into how to make improvements to remedy, reduce, and ultimately prevent medical errors. The Quality of Health Care in America Committee of the Institute of Medicine (1999) concluded, “it is not acceptable for patients to be harmed by the health care system that is supposed to offer healing and comfort”. Because medical