The biggest nightmare for any IVF patient ( and doctor) is an accidental mix-up of eggs, sperm or embryos. After all, they all look the same, do how do we make sure that there are no errors ? While the general principles of reducing errors apply to all medical specialties, since I am an IVF specialist, this chapter describes what we do to reduce errors in our IVF clinic. This should provide a sense of how medical specialists adapt patient safety solutions to their own field.
IVF is as prone to errors as any other treatment because it is provided by a host of people working together – doctors, nurses, receptionist, ultrasonographers, lab technicians and embryologists. It requires lots of coordination, and there are few treatment processes for which a team approach is more important than for assisted reproduction. Close, continuous communication is required at many levels to ensure…
