Posted: September 5th, 2023

Medical Errors

Medical Errors

A medical error is a preventable medical mistake in the treatment process that can harm the patient. A recent study showed that after strokes, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. In every seven patients visiting the hospital daily, one is a victim of medical error. Medical errors are prevalent in any medical setting, including clinics, surgeries, pharmacies, laboratories, among others.

Medical errors are often viewed as avoidable human errors in healthcare. The subject is, however, quite complicated, and causes are related to a range of different factors, including lack of experience, incompetency, communication barriers, negligence, illegible handwriting, fatigue from overworking, just to name a few. There a dozen types of medical errors ranging from medication errors, prescription errors, misdiagnosis, delays in receiving treatment, surgical, and other mishaps.

• Medication Errors

Medication errors are the most common mistakes in the treatment process. They involve giving wrong medication in incorrect dose combinations to the wrong patients. Errors may also entail giving a number of drugs to the same patients without double-checking the instructions and interactions that the meds may have when taken together. Studies show that medical errors affect an average of 1.5 million people each year. Healthcare facilities have put different measures in an effort to minimize cases of medication errors. For instance, scanning a patient’s wristbands to match their prescribed medications has gone a long way in reducing cases of medication mistakes.

• Prescription errors

Prescription errors are also quite common. Most prescription errors result in no harm or short-term low to moderate effects on the patient. However, some can be fatal with severe consequences that can result in death. They occur when a physician or healthcare personnel writes a dose of a higher or lower magnitude. It can also happen when the physician gives wrong instructions or failing to mention relevant information about the drugs.

• Misdiagnosis

Diagnostic mistakes are quite rare. However, misdiagnosing a patient is still possible. When someone is misdiagnosed, they are also treated with the wrong medications.

Delayed treatment

Delays in treatment often have serious impacts. It can either result in lifetime defects such as irreversible disabilities or even death. For instance, if a stroke patient is not given immediate medical attention, it can result in permanent partial or complete body paralysis.

Human is to error, while medication errors cannot be eliminated, they can be reduced. The first important step is to detect  them since minor errors in the system can have serious consequences. Reporting should also be encouraged by availing a blame-free environment where people can bring forward cases of medication errors without fear of being reprimanded or punished.