Medical error
hideMedical error is an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis and/or treatment of a disease; injury; syndrome; behavior; infection or other ailment.
In the U.S., medical errors are estimated to result in 44,000 to 98,000 unnecessary deaths and 1,000,000 excess injuries each year. One older extrapolation suggests '180,000 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury, the equivalent of three jumbo-jet crashes every 2 days'. It is estimated that in a typical 100 to 300 bed hospital in the United States, excess costs of $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 attributable to prolonged stays and complications just due to medication errors occur yearly.
However, medical error definitions are subject to debate, as there are many types of medical error from minor to major, and causality is often poorly determined. The Health Grades study statistics, based on AHRQ MedPAR data, were based on administrative records, not clinical records, and largely overlooked multi-causality of outcomes.
Medical care is frequently compared adversely to aviation: while many of the factors which lead to errors in both fields are similar, aviation's error management protocols are regarded as much more effective.
For more information about Medical error, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with medical errors
Burned out, depressed surgeons more likely to commit more major medical errors
Nov 23, 2009 |
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Surgeons who are burned out or depressed are more likely to say they had recently committed a major error on the job, according to the largest study to date on physician burnout. The new findings suggest that the mental well-being ...
Working overnights by physicians not linked to significantly increased risk of complications
Oct 13, 2009 |
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Attending surgeons and obstetricians/gynecologists who worked nighttime hours did not have a significantly greater rate of complications for procedures performed the next day, but having less than six hours of opportunity ...
Both distress and fatigue impact resident physician errors, study finds
Sep 22, 2009 |
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Mayo Clinic researchers report that distress and fatigue among medical residents are independent contributors to self-perceived medical errors. The findings appear today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) ...
Setting priorities for patient-safety efforts will mean hard choices
Aug 25, 2009 |
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Is it more urgent for hospitals, doctors and nurses to focus resources on preventing the thousands of falls that injure hospitalized patients each year, or to home in on preventing rare but dramatic instances of wrong-side ...
Parents fear errors during children's hospitalization
Aug 03, 2009 |
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Nearly two-thirds of parents reported they felt the need to watch over their child's care to ensure that medical errors are not made during their hospital stay, according to a study led by Beth A. Tarini, M.D., M.S., assistant ...
Saying 'sorry' pays off for U. of Michigan doctors
Jul 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- When a treatment goes wrong at a U.S. hospital, fear of a lawsuit usually means "never daring to say you're sorry."
Limiting work hours of medical residents could cost $1.6 billion annually, study finds
May 21, 2009 |
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New recommendations to limit the work hours of medical residents could cost the nation's teaching hospitals about $1.6 billion annually to hire substitute workers, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation and UCLA.
Side discrepancy errors in radiology reports rare but often clinically significant
May 20, 2009 |
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Side discrepancy errors in radiology reports do occur and it is important that radiologists, referring physicians and patients communicate well to help prevent errors in clinical management, according to a study performed ...
Study examines how doctors discuss medical errors
Oct 02, 2008 |
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We can learn from our mistakes, but how willing are we to talk about them? And what happens when those making mistakes are physicians, who are often expected to be infallible?
