Why It Is Important To Take Prevention Of Medical Errors Course

By Deanne Shepard


In cases of illnesses or emergencies, patients look up to their healthcare providers for assistance. They are all dedicated to offering health solutions to those in poor health. However, some patients get well, others fail to get well. In spite of the fact that health professionals give their best services, medical errors still exist in hospitals and it they have cost lives and led to disabilities. Taking a prevention of medical errors course, therefore becomes crucial among doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians.

Some medical mistakes emanate from healthcare professionals and patients too. These faults affect patients in different ways. For instance a patient may develop a long lasting complication, family members can lose a loved one who may have been their main sole provider leading to stress and depression among affected members. Healthcare workers like doctors or nurses may contract a deadly disease such as HIV and AIDs if they make an error when carrying out a medical procedure.

The mistakes can be both system based and human performance based. They can occur in hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, doctor offices, pharmacies, laboratories, nursing homes and in patient homes. Performance based errors may involve medicines, where wrong drugs may be administers or prescribed to patients. Faults can also involve a patient not properly directed on how to use a certain drug.

Surgeries can also go wrong. An error could lead to bleeding to death, damage to a major nerve, or even result to infections if asepsis is ignored. Wrong diagnosis could lead to an error. Some conditions often manifest in similar signs and symptoms where a doctor misses the correct diagnosis and treats a wrong disease.

Similarly, lack of good methods of acquiring information from patients has led to missed diagnosis, or prescription of drugs that are allergic to some patients. Some healthcare providers may have knowledge deficits in some areas and result in common mistakes. Poor reports from laboratories, improper writing and calculations have also led to faults in prescribing drugs, which are only realized when conditions of patients deteriorate.

Patients may omit crucial details about effects they have on drugs. Poor communication between doctors and other health professionals such as nurses or nutritionists may lead to poor management and missed information during treatment of patients. Equipment sterilization technicians if not keen can lead to asepsis errors causing infections and complications among patients.

Poor handling of equipment during procedures has also cost transfer of infections from patients to healthcare providers. Wrong laboratory results, poor reporting and assumptions have caused missed diagnosis of very dangerous microbes in body. These are some of the few consequences of medical faults occurring in hospitals and clinics.

Healthcare providers can protect themselves and patients from lawsuits by working to reduce common medical faults. This can be gained by undertaking a prevention course. The course entails different types of faults and risks of causing such mistakes, and the strategies to decrease the faults. Every healthcare provider should be obliged to undertake this course as part of his or her licensing requirements. It will help prevent some of the mistakes which are avoidable.




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Why It Is Important To Take Prevention Of Medical Errors Course

By Deanne Shepard


In cases of illnesses or emergencies, patients look up to their healthcare providers for assistance. They are all dedicated to offering health solutions to those in poor health. However, some patients get well, others fail to get well. In spite of the fact that health professionals give their best services, medical errors still exist in hospitals and it they have cost lives and led to disabilities. Taking a prevention of medical errors course, therefore becomes crucial among doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians.

Some medical mistakes emanate from healthcare professionals and patients too. These faults affect patients in different ways. For instance a patient may develop a long lasting complication, family members can lose a loved one who may have been their main sole provider leading to stress and depression among affected members. Healthcare workers like doctors or nurses may contract a deadly disease such as HIV and AIDs if they make an error when carrying out a medical procedure.

The mistakes can be both system based and human performance based. They can occur in hospitals, clinics, surgery centers, doctor offices, pharmacies, laboratories, nursing homes and in patient homes. Performance based errors may involve medicines, where wrong drugs may be administers or prescribed to patients. Faults can also involve a patient not properly directed on how to use a certain drug.

Surgeries can also go wrong. An error could lead to bleeding to death, damage to a major nerve, or even result to infections if asepsis is ignored. Wrong diagnosis could lead to an error. Some conditions often manifest in similar signs and symptoms where a doctor misses the correct diagnosis and treats a wrong disease.

Similarly, lack of good methods of acquiring information from patients has led to missed diagnosis, or prescription of drugs that are allergic to some patients. Some healthcare providers may have knowledge deficits in some areas and result in common mistakes. Poor reports from laboratories, improper writing and calculations have also led to faults in prescribing drugs, which are only realized when conditions of patients deteriorate.

Patients may omit crucial details about effects they have on drugs. Poor communication between doctors and other health professionals such as nurses or nutritionists may lead to poor management and missed information during treatment of patients. Equipment sterilization technicians if not keen can lead to asepsis errors causing infections and complications among patients.

Poor handling of equipment during procedures has also cost transfer of infections from patients to healthcare providers. Wrong laboratory results, poor reporting and assumptions have caused missed diagnosis of very dangerous microbes in body. These are some of the few consequences of medical faults occurring in hospitals and clinics.

Healthcare providers can protect themselves and patients from lawsuits by working to reduce common medical faults. This can be gained by undertaking a prevention course. The course entails different types of faults and risks of causing such mistakes, and the strategies to decrease the faults. Every healthcare provider should be obliged to undertake this course as part of his or her licensing requirements. It will help prevent some of the mistakes which are avoidable.




About the Author: