How We Can Reduce Medical Errors in Healthcare

Taaran Kaur, 10/20/24

Medical Errors can be defined as “deviations from the standard care process that may or may not result in patient injury.” In other words, Medical errors are when healthcare staff do not give the patient proper treatment, potentially causing harm to the patient. Medical error can include anything from giving a patient an incorrect dosage of medicine to hospital-acquired infections, and has severely harmful effects. Experts estimate that the medical errors cost healthcare networks more than twenty billion dollars each year. But even more importantly, current data indicates that Medical Errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

Studies indicate that about “approximately 400,000 hospitalized patients experience some preventable harm each year” and that more than 200,000 patient deaths per year are caused by “preventable medical errors”. It’s clear that this is a serious problem that needs to be solved. Fortunately researchers have found new ways to approach this issue with the help of education and technology.

Before detailing the methods by which healthcare systems can combat medical error, it’s important to understand the different types of error and why they occur. Possibly the highest risk medical error is Surgical error, which is when error occurs during an operation. Surgical error typically occurs due to miscommunications, problems with staffing/organization, or if the surgeon is distracted, rushed, or fatigued. Another type of error is diagnostic error which occurs when a clinician gives the wrong diagnosis to a patient or if the clinician does not give a diagnosis in time. This typically occurs in overworked healthcare systems but can also be due to a deficiency in the clinicians knowledge, or improper testing and follow up with the patient. Medication errors are when the patient receives the incorrect medication or the incorrect dosage of medication, and can occur at any point of the prescription to delivery process. Error can also occur with faulty medical equipment/devices or technological software and testing. Finally other sources of medical error involve hospital acquired infections, falls, and communication errors of any sort.

As discussed above, there are many types of medical errors that have a variety of causes. Because of this, there is no one solution to reducing medical errors–but there are many strategies that have potential to work. One specific method to reduce medical error is to improve the working environment for nurses because when nurses are fatigues and overworked, error rates go up. Some ways to do this are to decrease long shifts that require the nurses to stay awake for more than 17 hours, make sure off-duty periods are 8 hours or longer, and not extend shift hours. In other words, shifts should not be too long, breaks should be sufficient, and nurses shouldn’t have to work overtime too much. Nurses are invaluable to the healthcare system and are some of the hardest workers in patient care–but they are human too. Making sure that nurses are well-rested and not overwhelmed can help reduce medical error. 

The same principles described above also apply to all healthcare workers who work in shifts, such as surgeons. Therefore, they are one way to reduce surgical error as well. Other strategies to reduce surgical errror include using checklists and counting instruments. Furthermore, with the new technologies that surgeons use, its important to make sure that all cameras and software is functioning correctly. That being said, technology and AI can also help reduce error by standarizing the process of and giving more acurate readings. The use of robotics during surgery, for example, has made many procedures significantly less evasive which in turn, reduces the amount of error.

Finally, perhaps the most obvious and important way to reduce medical error is through better training and educations. Healthcare is a rapidly changing field, so it is important that all clinicians are frequently updating their knowledge base by learning about new and better methods that replace the outdated way of doing things. Professionals should learn how to use the new technologies effectively and should be assesed on their capabilities with them. Healthcare professionals need to have an open mindest and be flexible to new and better approaches to solve problems because that will allow them to perform thier tasks quicker and more accurately.
  

In summary, medical errors are a pressing issue in healthcare, but not one that can’t be solved. Methods such as improving the working environment, updating training and education plans, and using technology correctly can significantly reduce error. Overall, professionals need to be open to new ideas and pay attention to each patient as an individual in order to always, “do no harm.”

Sources

Rodziewicz TL, Houseman B, Vaqar S, et al. Medical Error Reduction and Prevention. [Updated 2024 Feb 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/