Specific Ways to Deal With Medical Errors Crisis

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Patient Safety
Medical error
Introduction
Discussion
Causes of Medical Errors
System Failures
Measures to Combat Medical Errors
Conclusion
Reference List

Abstract

This paper is aimed at putting forward some of the underlying factors as far as medical error is concerned. This paper will put more emphasis on the ways medical institutions have responded to patient safeties and epitomic efficiency in administering treatment as well as avoiding inflicting sufferings to the patients either through avoidable or unavoidable medical error. The paper will emphasis more on the measures medical institutions follow when responding to crisis associated with medical error in any given medical institute. In this paper I will highlight causes of medical errors and the systemic obstacles to providing accurate treatment as well as the valid changes and policies that can amount to proper medical care to avoid errors in the line of duty.

Patient Safety

Patient safety is a scientific moral obligation and a code of conduct that is supposed to be followed by every practitioner in order to avoid causing any medical error. This helps them to avoid causing or inflicting any unnecessary damages to the patients through improper miscalculation during diagnosis time. Several factors like poor analysis and reporting can amount to medical error. This error might have hazardous health effects to the patients.

Medical error

Patient safety is guaranteed by proper diagnosis, treatment or counseling hence failure to that leads to the Practitioner causing a medical error. Therefore medical error is misdiagnosis that can be caused by poor or inaccurate or halfway diagnostic measures of a specific ailment, injury or infection. Going on medical error can be interpreted as a procedural failure by a doctor to help the patient to fully recover either through a sin of commission or omission depending with the capability of the doctor and the magnitude of the error i.e. minor or major error.

Introduction

Patient safety is a big concern as it pertains to healthcare delivery by the practitioners and the medical institutions at large in order to avoid committing any medical error. The main purpose is to support and maintain patient safety and to monitor the medical institutions from inflicting any unnecessary damages or loss to the patients. Safe treatment and care can only be guaranteed by the state through proper policies and structural mechanism that can be adhered to by every department In any given medical institution and its hierarchical arrangements.

Discussion

Mostly, medical errors can be caused by the practitioners through improper miscalculation of diagnosis, incompetent practitioners or the complicated machines or the technology applied. Not only the risky procedures of diagnosis can cause medical error, severity of the condition can also cause the same. This will applies when it comes to the cultural beliefs to save life. (Rosenstein 2007)

Medical institution usually hire qualified staffs, therefore it is due to human weakness and tumbles that causes medical failure and not due to incompetent. Sometimes all cannot be blamed to the doctors since some procedures are more hazardous than others like incase of a complicated maneuver.

Medication errors in the course of a procedural surgery are more perilous as compared to other areas of treatment. For example, I witnessed a situation where a patient got a still birth due to failure by the surgeon to detect the position of the fetus in time. This lead to the victim laboring for long with unsuccessful birth. Due to high speed of the operation the baby’s face was discovered to be severely mutilated after the operation. This left the mother traumatized and mentally handicapped.

Causes of Medical Errors

Medical errors can be caused highly by human fault such as improper judgment during diagnosis. This entails poor psychotherapy of the ailment, damage or any other underlying factor to be diagnosed. Poor exposure or understanding during diagnosis or lack of proper systemic approach caused by incompetent practitioner is another cause (GABA 2000). The incompetent can be caused by lack of experience to identify the complicated ailments or conditions or lack of know-how on the current technology and the medical devices being used. Going on medical error can be caused by the procedures employed to carry out the diagnosis. High workload can lead to lack of work morale. For example if the number of the patients outweighs the doctors, then nurse suffer exhaustion and fatigue that can lead to miscellaneous error due to time anxiety.

Another cause can be use of complicated machinery and expertise that are not conversant to the practitioner. Sometimes Doctors may subscribe powerful drugs that the doctor doesn’t know the strength due to cross product names and manufacturers’ corporation and this can also cause medical blunder.

System Failures

This will involve poor hierarchy in administration and handling of medical appointment cases. System failure is accelerated by poor communication in the line of duty, ignorance or undermining junior staffs. Alternatively, poor reporting and scrutinizing mechanisms can lead to poor or wrong signal to the senior doctor. In the process of diagnosis there may be miscommunication between the patient and the doctor or the patient and the family affiliates of the patient (Ross and Norton 2004).This can also have adverse effect to the patient (Yearly Report on Quality and Safety 2007 from a Joint Commission on Safety)

All the machineries may lead to medical fault when the system fall short (Berwick and Barach 2005). This happens when there is unclear line of duty and authority between doctors, nurses and other subordinate staffs. Unchecked institutional rules and regulations may hamper the practitioner from carrying on duties properly.

Measures to Combat Medical Errors

All the above mentioned causes of medical errors should be avoided by looking for competent and dedicated medical practitioners who have a call in this work to provide safe care to the patients. Again our organization calls for adherent of the staffs to the code of ethics and the Hippocratic Oath in their line of duty (Rosenstein 2007).

My organization has been responding very well to the medical error crisis and what caused them. This helps to identify the cause and to avoid a repeat of the same. Going on, new measures to update the guiding principles, the staffs with new and the latest technologies and medical devices help to keep the staffs competent to deliver (Grazier 2007). Division of labor and laborers motivation e.g. overtime pay helps to cease burnout and fatigue. The medical institutions should have an independent board or body to monitor the performance of the practitioners. The body should also check the safety of both the practitioner and the patients.

Conclusion

The core unit for any government or medical institutions is to provide safe care to patients. This employs all the necessary measures helpful like use of convenient safe machineries, competent manpower, medical institutions and conducive environment supported by good infrastructure and governance (Eilat (2006).

Reference List

Dewar, S. and Sack, K. (2008). Financial crisis collapses safety-monitoring agency. The New York Times. Web.

Eilat, E. and Shactman, D (2006).Use of valid infrastructures on Health Affairs. A Foundation of National Patient Safety. Web.

Grazier, K. (2007).Texas Health Resources: Journal of Healthcare Management, 53(2), 141-4. Web.

Institute of medical studies, (1998, April).Human error in medical field: Molding Smart Health System.

Journal of Canadian Medical Association 171 (12): 1679–1684.

Rosenstein, B. (2008). Importance of Patient Safety: A Doctors Effort Organization at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Biomedical Equipments and Machineries, 42(2), 42-4.

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