Large health care systems with multiple facilities can track as many as 1,000 events each month" (Berntsen, 2004, p. 44). That is an amazing number of cases that came extremely close to becoming medical errors, and they were only stopped by caregiver response or sometimes by chance. Near misses are an extremely important part of the healthcare facility's treatment program, because they can indicate just how accident and error-prone a facility is, and they can even indicate which departments and individuals may be the most error-prone.
How does a staff effectively reduce medical errors in their facility? Authors Turner and Kurtz believe debriefing of the team is key to reducing errors. They write, "Effective debriefing is the key to long-term sustainable improvements in patient safety and care. It is only through debriefing that an organization, team, or individual will improve consistently over time" (Turner, and Kurtz, 2008). Debriefing, the authors believe, should be confidential, non-threatening, structured and timely. They should take place as soon after the event or error as possible, and they should allow the participants to acknowledge their own errors or missteps, so they can identify them and improve them in the future. They should not be finger-pointing sessions or rants about safety. They should acknowledge what went well with the procedure, as well. Several studies indicate that a staff trained in debriefing is a safer and happier staff, with more effective patient outcomes (Turner, and Kurtz, 2008).
Debriefing is only one way to help improve or reduce medical errors. Communication is another key element, both between medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals, and between healthcare staff and patients. One reason errors occur is that healthcare prescriptions and orders have to go through so many channels, from doctor to nurse, to HMO, to lab or facility, to the operator, and on. Thus, a written order can be misconstrued at many different...
Stated to be barriers in the current environment and responsible for the reporting that is inadequate in relation to medical errors are: Lack of a common understanding about errors among health care professionals Physicians generally think of errors as individual that resulted from patient morbidity or mortality. Physicians report errors in medical records that have in turn been ignored by researchers. Interestingly errors in medication occur in almost 1 of every 5 doses
MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE Medical and Healthcare: Technology Trend in HealthcareTechnology has transformed the way humans are living lives in recent times, including healthcare. With the use of artificial intelligence and robotics, healthcare professionals aim to infuse technology in almost impossible and unimaginable ways to work towards the best patient care possibilities and reduce medical errors. This paper aims at detailing one of the recent progressions in healthcare and the benefits
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