The primary emphasis on error reduction is to decrease deaths and injury and improve patient safety during the delivery of healthcare.  In addition, costs of medical care will be reduced and job efficiency will be improved.  Since time-management is crucial in today’s workplace, the time gained from not having to deal with medical errors provides an added bonus to each institution that reduces medical error occurrences. Since Medicare pays hospitals a fixed amount under the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG), the costs related to the extra care and time for the recovery of the patient is not reimbursed. If accurate systems were instituted to reduce errors, the amount of time involved in corrective actions would decrease significantly, allowing an opportunity for increased financial performance as well as providing increased time for quality patient interaction.

Examples of medical errors and contiguous factors leading to medical errors include, but are not restricted to:

·        Medication errors:

§         wrong medication

§          wrong dosage

§         disregard of history of allergic reaction

§         incorrect patient

-                     patient identification banding

-                     wrong chart information

-                     medical record placed on wrong chart

-                     similar names

·        Medical procedure:

§         wrong patient

§         wrong procedure

§          wrong part (site)

·        Clinical practice:

§         Inappropriate policies and procedures

§         Inappropriate training and education

§         Inappropriate and wrong interventions

-                     due to lack of knowledge

-                     non-adherence with standards of care

·        Facility related concerns:

§         Improper/unsafe staffing ratios

§         Lack of ensuring/validating practitioner competence

§         Lack of continuum of care focus

§         Lack of management

§         Inaccurate/missing polices and procedures

Next Page