One study reported that approximately 400,000 hospitalized patients experience some preventable harm each year, while another estimated that >200,000 patient deaths annually were due to preventable medical errors. Moreover, medical errors have a high cost, with some experts estimating adverse events costing the healthcare system $20 billion each year and others approximating healthcare costs of $35.7 to $45 billion annually for hospital-acquired infections alone. Medical errors also negatively impact the patient, their family, involved clinicians and support staff, the healthcare facility, and the community. Healthcare professionals may experience profound psychological effects (eg, anger, guilt, inadequacy, depression, and suicidal ideation) due to actual or perceived errors, which the threat of impending legal action may compound.
What Are “Medical Errors”?
The definition of a medical error varies, making analysis via uniform objectives difficult. Furthermore, a lack of standardized terminology has hindered data assessment, synthesis, and evaluation. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Quality of Health Care in the US, which performed the first large study on medical errors, defined a medical error as “the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim.” Another definition identifies medical errors as a failure in care that may or may not result in patient harm. Regardless of the definition, medical errors are associated with high morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. Moreover, they can negatively impact the patient, their family, involved clinicians and support staff, the healthcare facility, and the community.
The IOM defined a medical error as the failure to complete the intended plan of action or implementation of the wrong plan to achieve an intended outcome. Other experts characterized medical errors as deviations from the standard care process that may or may not result in patient injury. Additionally, medical errors can be categorized as either errors of omission or commission. Errors of omission cause adverse events through actions not taken (eg, not strapping a patient into a wheelchair or not stabilizing a gurney before patient transfer), while errors of commission occur secondary to a direct action by a healthcare team member (eg, administering a medication to a patient with a known allergy or mislabeling a laboratory specimen with the wrong patient name. Subsequently, some experts define an adverse event as an act of omission or commission in medical management planning or execution that causes or can potentially cause patient harm. Subtypes of medical errors include errors of communication, diagnostic errors, surgical errors, and patient suicide.
If you or a loved one may have been harmed as a result of a medical error in the United States, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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