Dr. Pratibha Kane is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Jehangir Hospital with over 32 years of clinical experience. She has a special interest in Medico Legal Counselling, the legal aspects related to Healthcare and Risk Management and Quality in Healthcare. Medical errors are relatively common. Some are preventable, whereas some others are inevitable.
They represent a serious public health problem and pose a threat to patient safety. Errors often occur not because physicians have an inadequate knowledge or are incompetent, but that they have a tendency to get stuck in a particular mode of thinking. To reduce the incidence of errors, physicians must identify their causes, devise solutions and measure the success of improvement efforts. Moreover, accurate measurements of the incidence of error, based on clear and consistent definitions, are essential prerequisites for…
