Patient Safety and Medical Errors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Patient Safety and Medical Errors - Essay Example Failure by this group to follow due process or any negligent behavior increases the risks of the patients and compromises their safety. Patient safety is considered as a wide area that has grown out of the current use of technology and the development of different medical approaches in healthcare. According to the global nursing association, patient safety has no financial needs as it involves the commitment of the healthcare professionals and the provision of quality services to the patients (Stern, 2008). Medical errors do occur in a hospital setting as a result of professional negligence or omission which could have been avoided thus affecting the healing process of the patient. In medical history, the medical errors and their impacts on patients recovery has been documented beginning from the time of Socrates. However, most professional healthcare workers lack information on the impacts of the errors they commit and these results into misreporting or lack of reporting altogether, an event that has led to the death and chronic injury of patients (Leape and Berwick, 2005). A number of studies have indicated the prevalence of medical errors in the health system across the globe, affecting developed and developing countries alike. In Australia, the medical errors documented in one year caused more than 18,000 deaths that could have been avoided and prevented. In the United States, the number was high, standing at over 44,000 in one particular year. The number of injuries remains high though their accuracy is doubtable due to lack of documented information on the same at any particular time (Nieva and Sorra, 2003). The cost of medical errors on patients can be categorized into human and economic costs and this provides a description of human life lost or the number of adverse effects caused on the health of the patient.