Medical Errors Essay Example
Medical Errors
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. This means that more people die from medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. 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 cost the economy from $17 to $29 billion each year.
What are Medical Errors?
Medical errors happen when something that was planned as a part of medical care doesn't work out, or when the wrong plan was used in the first place. Medical errors can occur anywhere in the health care system: • Hospitals. • Clinics. • Outpatient Surgery Centers. • Doctors' Offices. • Nursing Homes. • Pharmacies. • Patients' Homes.
Errors can involve: • Medicines. • Surgery. • Diagnosis. • Equipment. • Lab reports.
They can happen during even the most routine tasks, such as when a hospital patient on a salt-free diet is given a high-salt meal.
Most errors result from problems created by today's complex health care system. But errors also happen when doctors and their patients have problems communicating. For example, a recent study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that doctors often do not do enough to help their patients make informed decisions. Uninvolved and uninformed patients are less likely to accept the doctor's choice of treatment and less likely to do what they need to do to make the treatment work.
Patients at Risk
Medical errors may result in: • A patient inadvertently given the wrong medicine. • A clinician misreading the results of a test. • An elderly woman with ambiguous symptoms (shortness of breath, abdominal pain, and dizziness) whose heart attack is not diagnosed by emergency room staff.
Errors like these are
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. This means that more people die from medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. 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 cost the economy from $17 to $29 billion each year.
What are Medical Errors?
Medical errors happen when something that was planned as a part of medical care doesn't work out, or when the wrong plan was used in the first place. Medical errors can occur anywhere in the health care system: • Hospitals. • Clinics. • Outpatient Surgery Centers. • Doctors' Offices. • Nursing Homes. • Pharmacies. • Patients' Homes.
Errors can involve: • Medicines. • Surgery. • Diagnosis. • Equipment. • Lab reports.
They can happen during even the most routine tasks, such as when a hospital patient on a salt-free diet is given a high-salt meal.
Most errors result from problems created by today's complex health care system. But errors also happen when doctors and their patients have problems communicating. For example, a recent study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that doctors often do not do enough to help their patients make informed decisions. Uninvolved and uninformed patients are less likely to accept the doctor's choice of treatment and less likely to do what they need to do to make the treatment work.
Patients at Risk
Medical errors may result in: • A patient inadvertently given the wrong medicine. • A clinician misreading the results of a test. • An elderly woman with ambiguous symptoms (shortness of breath, abdominal pain, and dizziness) whose heart attack is not diagnosed by emergency room staff.
Errors like these are