Medical Errors

Course overview

We discuss the definition of medical error. The definition of diagnostic error using process-linked definitions, definition of prescription error, the impact of medication error, medical errors in the UK, in the US, causes of medical errors, errors of commission, errors of omission, healthcare complexity, why healthcare complexity makes diagnosis difficult, system process and design, causes in system process and design that lead to medical error, other factors, competency, education and training, human factors and ergonomics, cognitive errors, sleep deprivation and how it leads to medical errors, practitioner risk factors, errors in interpreting medical images, examples, errors in diagnosis, misdiagnosis of psychological disorders, outpatient versus inpatient, medical prescriptions, prescription errors, medication errors, mitigation after an error, recognizing that mistakes are not isolated events, placing the practice of medicine in perspective, disclosing mistakes, forgiveness to oneself, to patients, to non-physicians, other physicians, to the physician's institution, use of rationalization to cover up medical errors, by potential harm to patient, legal procedure, prevention of medical errors, reporting requirements, cause-specific preventive measures, anesthesiology, medications, historically, misconception.