Medical errors are a leading cause of patient harm and death in the United States. They are also a major contributor to healthcare costs, including higher health insurance premiums per person.
To improve patient safety, healthcare providers need to understand the principles of preventing medical errors in hospitals and implement these strategies. These are based on the experience of other high-risk industries and have proven effective in reducing catastrophic events.
1. Infection Prevention
One of the most important principles for preventing medical errors is infection prevention. It involves the control of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
Infections can result from a number of factors, including improper use of equipment and improper care of the body. Nurses can avoid infections by properly cleaning and disinfecting their hands.
These measures help to prevent the spread of bacteria that have become resistant to drugs. They also decrease hospital-acquired infections, such as central line bloodstream infections.
Infection prevention is one of the most important principles for preventing medical error in hospitals. By ensuring that all members of the healthcare team are fully trained and supported in their efforts, they can focus on delivering quality care. The goal is to minimize the risk of harm to patients, nurses, and staff. This requires teamwork, education, and training through structured initiatives. Only when these are in place will the patient safety issues that plague modern health care be mitigated.
2. Medication Safety
Medication errors are a significant cause of death in hospitals, costing the country billions of dollars annually. They are also a frequent source of adverse drug events (ADEs),2 and can occur in all settings5–7.
Several factors contribute to medication errors, including human error, lack of systemic awareness and training, and ineffective medication use. Consequently, it is imperative that health care organizations have an effective strategy for preventing errors from occurring in the hospital setting.
As a result, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has developed a number of guidelines that address the principles of preventing medical errors in the hospital setting.
ASHP believes that pharmacists, as medication safety leaders, have unique expertise in the area of preventing medication errors. This expertise includes leadership through direction and prioritization, medication safety knowledge and influence, research, education, and practice change.
3. Surgical Safety
Surgical errors can result in death, injury, and other adverse events. These complications can be preventable through the proper coordination of a team.
A key aspect of surgical safety is establishing systematic verifications to ensure the correct patient, procedure, and site are used for each surgery. A checklist is a tool that can support this effort and help to avoid errors.
The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Surgical Safety Checklist, which is used by surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and patients. It consists of 19 items that cover areas such as patient identification, anesthesia equipment check and pulse oximetry checks before induction of anesthesia (“sign in”), before skin incision (“time out”), and before the patient leaves the operating theater (OT) (“sign out”).
Studies show that hospitals that use the WHO surgical safety checklist have a lower rate of complications than those that don’t. These benefits can be achieved through a number of strategies, including training hospital staff to make use of the checklist.
4. Patient Safety
Patient safety is an area of healthcare that emphasizes preventing harm to patients during their care. It involves planning that fosters communication, lowers infection rates and reduces errors.
Medical errors are the leading cause of death and injury in hospitals. They occur due to a number of different factors, including errors in diagnosis, inappropriate use of medications, and failures to monitor or treat patients appropriately.
Many medical errors are preventable with a high level of diligence. These include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line bloodstream infections, adverse drug events, and falls.
In addition to preventing error through careful management, it is also important to take into account how errors are identified and reported. Having a multidisciplinary group evaluate error information where feasible is an effective strategy to decrease the number of medication errors in hospitals.
