Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Errors in the health care system
Patient safety about
Patient safety about
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
There are a few types of medical errors discussed in Patient Safety Principles & Practice. One of them is an error of execution. An error of execution is when a correct action does not proceed as intended. It is a failure of a planned action to be completed as first intended. It occurs unintentionally during an automatic performance of patient care. This error is almost always observable at the patient and caregiver interface.
Another type is an error of planning. This type of error happens when an original intended action is not correct, or the use of a wrong plan to achieve a goal. An error of planning takes place when a provider intentionally develops a plan for the patient. The error is not observable until apparently the planned outcome
hasn’t been attained. These errors are classified as either latent or active. Active errors occur at the sharp end with usually immediate consequences to the patient. Latent errors occur at the blunt end, being caused by organization factors. This type of error may go unnoticed or lie dormant for years until local forces act. Lastly, there are intentional and unintentional errors. Errors in both planning and performing that are unintentional may be caused by having incomplete information, being distracted, or forgetfulness. Intentional errors result from a violation of rules such as cutting corners to save time, impaired staff, or any other willful disregarding of rules of the organization.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year in the United States due to a preventable medical error. A report written by the National Quality Forum (NQF) found that over a decade after the IOM report the prevalence of medical errors remains very high (2010). In fact a study done by the Hearst Corporation found that the number of deaths due to medical error and post surgical infections has increased since the IOM first highlighted the problem and recommended actions to reduce the number of events (Dyess, 2009).
Wickens, Lee, Liu and Gordon-Becker (2014) defined human error as the “inappropriate human behavior that lowers levels of system effectiveness or safety”. Human error consists of mistake, which is the intended action that turned out to be inappropriate; slip, which is the unintended incorrect act; and lapse, the omission of nonintentional errors (Wickens, Lee, Liu & Gordon-Becker, 2014). There are various instances of human error demonstrated in the case description including, the nurse entering the MRI room with the oxygen tank (mistake), failure to check the level of oxygen in the tank (lapse) and the oxygen tank accidentally flying over to Michael’s head
Hospital medical errors can involve medicines (e.g., wrong drug, wrong dose, bad combination), an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis, equipment malfunction, surgical mistakes, or laboratory errors. High medical error rates with serious consequences occurs in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments; but, serious errors that harmed patients may have prevented or minimized. Understand the nature of the error
Medical and medication errors and adverse events are well known issues in the health care industry, regardless of country. Errors are either the correct implementation of the wrong procedure or the wrong implementation of the correct procedure (IOM, 1999 pp23-25). Adverse events are considered unintended injuries and/or harm that are caused to the patient but not necessarily due to human error. This proposal will present a technical solution, using case based reasoning, to help prevent the occurrence of errors, thus reduce adverse events, and to make suggestions to the line staff as to what to do when such an event or error happens.
Every day there is a constant trust adhered to many different people in the profession of Nursing—the decision of what will help patients in terms of medicine, and the confidence to make these decisions. One false act or one slight misdiagnoses of medication to a patient could be the prime factor in whether the patient lives or dies. Nurses in hospitals across the country are spread thin, and thus makes the probability of mistakes higher. If a medicinal dose is off by even one decimal a patient could die, so the only real answer is for nurses to not be afraid to ask for assistance, always follow procedure and voice opinion is they feel something is wrong.
Patient safety one of the driving forces of healthcare. Patient safety is defined as, “ the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare or as the prevention of errors and adverse events caused by the provision of healthcare rather than the patient’s underlying disease process. (Kangasniemi, Vaismoradi, Jasper, &Turunen, 2013)”. It was just as important in the past as it is day. Our healthcare field continues to strive to make improvement toward safer care for patients across the country.
When an error occurs, the first step usually taken is to identify the individual that is responsible for the mistake. Frontline providers in health care, like nurses and doctors, are usually held accountable when a mistake occurs that affects patient safety and care. While this is the easiest step, it is not the most effective. "When human error is viewed as a cause rather than a consequence, it serves as a cloak for our ignorance. By serving as an end point rather than a starting point, it retards further understanding [1]." Factors outlined in Henriksen 's hierarchy, e.g. individual characteristics, the nature of the work, human-system interfaces, work environment, and management, need to be taken into account to identify the source of the
Medical errors can happen in the healthcare system such as hospitals, outpatient clinics, operating rooms, doctor’s offices, pharmacies, patients’ homes and anywhere in the healthcare system where patients are being treated. These errors consist of diagnostic, treatment, medicine, surgical, equipment calibration, and lab report error. Furthermore, communication problems between doctors and patients, miscommunication among healthcare staff and complex health care systems are playing important role in medical errors. We need to look for a solution which starts changes from physicians, nurses, pharmacists, patients, hospitals, and government agencies. In this paper I will discuss how does the problem of medical errors affect our healthcare delivery system? Also how can these medical errors be prevented and reduced?
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 coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
Patient safety in the OR is the upmost priority for the perioperative nurses and medical team. Surgical procedures come with great risks and it is the nurse’s responsibility to protect the patient as much as possible. A vital way in which nurses can protect their patient’s while in the OR is through safe positioning. Correctly positioning a patient can eliminate preventable complications, like infections or pressure sores, and ultimately allow the healthcare team to provide safer care.
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher
Patient safety is an important challenge for all modern health services. Healthcare is a risky business; it brings together sick and vulnerable patients with medical services and often complex technology and requires the effective coordination of many people. Complex systems in any industry are prone to human error [1, 2]. No matter how committed, skilled and hard working the staff, the complexity of the organization and the nature of human behaviour means that unwelcome incidents do happen and errors are made. Very few errors are due to a lack of care or commitment from health care professionals or from a desire to deliberately harm patients [1].
The topics of health and safety are a hospital’s main concern when it comes to treating their patients. A hospital’s main goal is the patient; without patients, there would be no one for physicians to treat, therefore making it hard for hospitals to be run. Health care managers and leaders provide aid to patients by listening and understanding their patient’s needs as well as concerns. These issues are addressed within healthcare facilities in order to improve their system which can include making changes within the hospital in order to fulfill the patients’ needs to create a better environment overall. This is a patient centered operation with innovation being a key target.
While the idea and occurrence of medical errors are not a new phenomenon, few individuals today are able to correctly define what medical error are and this is largely because the idea of medical errors are difficult to sum up in one concise definition. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1970 for the purpose of providing evidence-based research and recommendations for public health and science policies. The IOM are pioneers in providing substantial evidence of the adverse effects of medical errors. Adverse effects or adverse events meaning, “An incidence resulting in, or having the potential for physical, emotional, or financial liability to the patient (Von Laue, N.C., 2003).”
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...