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.
Others happen at homes where the patients cause them due to lack of knowledge such as taking care of a wound or in using medications. You might have seen patients being rushed to hospitals from an incident of drug overdose, or taking the wrong medicine. Some patients often survive while others lose their lives. Among the providers, the prescription especially of dangerous drugs with a narrow therapeutic index has led to medicinal errors which have cost lives.
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.
There is need for our health care professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and infection control professionals to take this course to boost their knowledge and gain new skills in dealing with these errors. The training entails understanding different types of medical errors, factors that increase risks of these faults, strategies of preventing them. This way, there can be a decrease in most preventable mistakes in health facilities. It also eliminates possible lawsuits, which may arise when such faults are committed.
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.
Others happen at homes where the patients cause them due to lack of knowledge such as taking care of a wound or in using medications. You might have seen patients being rushed to hospitals from an incident of drug overdose, or taking the wrong medicine. Some patients often survive while others lose their lives. Among the providers, the prescription especially of dangerous drugs with a narrow therapeutic index has led to medicinal errors which have cost lives.
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.
There is need for our health care professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and infection control professionals to take this course to boost their knowledge and gain new skills in dealing with these errors. The training entails understanding different types of medical errors, factors that increase risks of these faults, strategies of preventing them. This way, there can be a decrease in most preventable mistakes in health facilities. It also eliminates possible lawsuits, which may arise when such faults are committed.
