Err Is Human it Is the Opinion

¶ … Err is Human

It is the opinion of this author as a health care professional that much of the errors in the system are due to health care cutbacks first mandated by HMOs and what will now happen under the new federal laws and guidelines. Of course, such a view might be considered to not be viable. It is after all always easy to blame the "system" for issues that institutions and individuals commit. While this may certainly be the case, ask any hospital doctor or nurse who has been in the system for awhile (at least those who have survived burn-out) and they will make the anecdotal observation that they feel more tired, burned out and less able to function than ever. Simply, the psychological strain of dealing with too many patients makes one long for the days of rich private "Cadillac" insurance policies in the 1960s and 70s that allowed hospital stays until problems were curred. From this author's point-of-view, many times can not do more with less but rather produce less in both quality and quantity. This point will be visited further briefly in section B. Of the essay.

Section A

Certainly, health care professionals need to do everything in our power to eliminate errors. This is simply central to our mission in the healing professions. The recommendations in both sources that have resonated with this author are to be found in the area of such safeguarding on the behalf of healthcare workers. Certainly then, this author would concur with To Err is Human that "raising standards and expectations for improvements in safety through the actions of oversight organizations, group purchasers, and professional groups" is very necessary ("Executive summary err," 5 ) .

In addition, they would favor "creating safety systems inside health care organizations through the implementation of safe practices at the delivery level

" (ibid). Both of these recommendations would centralize and streamline the reform of health care to reduce mistakes. This then would dovetail with recommendations 1 and two in the chasm piece (Institute of Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Quality of Health Care in America (Ed.), 1999).

Section B

Almost any person working in a hospital can point to a time when the wrong medications were given out to the wrong statement. I have seen one time a person very who was almost given the generic equivalent of a medication as demanded by their HMO. As the head person on duty, the author caught the error and got the correct referral information to qualify for the more expensive, non-generic medication. As the person was elderly and frail, an allergic reaction could potentially have been life-threatening. Admittedly, this person was tired and near the end of a shift. However, after they were reprimanded orally (this was their first offense), they were told very strenuously that it would be better to cost the hospital a few extra dollars in more expensive information that was not paid for by insurance than to risk a wrongful death suit or a malpractice suit.