The Patient S Guide To Preventing Medical Errors

A nation watched in horror as 17-year-old Jessica Santillian died needlessly after a heart-lung transplant in 2003. She had been given organs with the wrong blood type. That error killed her. It is just one among tens of thousands of less publicized errors that occur in U.S. hospitals each year. Author Karin Berntsen, a veteran of the hospital and health care industry, takes us through the headlines, and the events never publicized, into hospital wards and surgical rooms to see how errors are made causing disability or death. She gives graphic examples of actual events that illustrate the problems cited in a federal Institute of Medicine report showing medical errors in the hospital cause 44,000 to 98,000 deaths each year. Those errors include medication mistakes, wrong site or side surgery, and botched transfusions. Berntsen explains why these are not just human errors with one or two people responsible; they are systems failures that require a major culture change to remedy. And that change, she argues, may not come without action by the very people the medical system is designed to help: patients. She offers clear actions consumers can take to assure they are not on the receiving end of a medical error. The book details over 200 tips for improving patient safety. U.S. hospitals have countless stories of miraculous healing and recovery; the greatest technology, most advanced medicines, and best research in the world. On the other hand, we have a system where medical errors bring more than 120 fatalities each day across the country in hospitals. An airline crash causing that many deaths daily would paralyze that industry. But because the deaths and harm are diluted across and deep within the silence of hospitals, it is easier to be complacent. There is, says Berntsen, an urgent need to pause and take inventory, a need for clinicians and consumers to come together as partners for change.

Medical errors kill 98,000 patients per year in the United States. But you, the patient, can play a crucial role in preventing these mistakes by fully educating yourself about your own health. According to author and medical doctor Sheldon Cohen, the best way to secure this information is to get a comprehensive medical examination.The Patient's Guide to the Complete Medical Examination and the Prevention of Medical Errors is the perfect tool to help you take charge of your health as you attempt to navigate through the United States' overburdened health-care system. Filled with essential information on what an examination should entail, Cohen reveals several key points you need to discuss with your doctor. These include your complete medical history, the functioning of each organ system, and laboratory data.Once armed with your personal health information, you will be in a position to reduce your risk for medical error and live a longer, healthier life.

Despite the evolution and growing awareness of patient safety, many medical professionals are not a part of this important conversation. Clinicians often believe they are too busy taking care of patients to adopt and implement patient safety initiatives and that acknowledging medical errors is an affront to their skills. Patient Safety provides clinicians with a better understanding of the prevalence, causes and solutions for medical errors; bringing best practice principles to the bedside. Written by experts from a variety of backgrounds, each chapter features an analysis of clinical cases based on the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methodology, along with case-based discussions on various patient safety topics. The systems and processes outlined in the book are general and broadly applicable to institutions of all sizes and structures. The core ethic of medical professionals is to “do no harm”. Patient Safety is a comprehensive resource for physicians, nurses and students, as well as healthcare leaders and administrators for identifying, solving and preventing medical error.

In 1996 the Institute of Medicine launched the Quality Chasm Series, a series of reports focused on assessing and improving the nation's quality of health care. Preventing Medication Errors is the newest volume in the series. Responding to the key messages in earlier volumes of the seriesâ€"To Err Is Human (2000), Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), and Patient Safety (2004)â€"this book sets forth an agenda for improving the safety of medication use. It begins by providing an overview of the system for drug development, regulation, distribution, and use. Preventing Medication Errors also examines the peer-reviewed literature on the incidence and the cost of medication errors and the effectiveness of error prevention strategies. Presenting data that will foster the reduction of medication errors, the book provides action agendas detailing the measures needed to improve the safety of medication use in both the short- and long-term. Patients, primary health care providers, health care organizations, purchasers of group health care, legislators, and those affiliated with providing medications and medication- related products and services will benefit from this guide to reducing medication errors.

Medication safety is the most challenging goal for pharmacy practice and patient safety professionals in all health care facilities. This book serves as an essential reference guide for planning and implementing a medication safety program. Written by nationally-recognized experts, Medication Safety: A Guide for Health Care Facilities provides a comprehensive analysis of principles and practices associated with the prevention and identification of medication errors, as well as interdisciplinary, facility-wide recommendations for achieving medication safety in all settings. This book is divided into four sections so users can easily find the information they need: the Importance of Medication Safety, the Medication Safety Team, Building a Safe Medication Use System, and Measuring Medication Safety.

Learn to avoid or to address medication errors by focusing on the five "rights" of nursing drug administration: the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time. Introductory chapter explains what drugs are and how they work, and the role of nurses in drug administration. Actual medication errors are interspersed throughout the text, presented as case examples, and supported by a comprehensive index, including court cases, drug names, and types of errors. Also offers several appendices, including dangerous drug interactions, antidotes for poisoning and overdose, common pharmacologic abbreviations, and a quick-reference conversion chart.