In medicine, not all errors lead to adverse events, and many of these errors are preventable. But if the number of errors increases, incidentally, adverse events will also increase. A landmark study, where 1133 medical records were reviewed, highlighted that 70 percent of adverse events were preventable, nearly 6% were potentially preventable, and 24% were not preventable.
While another review of 15000 medical records showed that almost 54% of surgical errors were preventable. In an overview of 11 studies in primary healthcare setup, the frequency and nature of the medical error were studied, and the results are shown in the table presented below: Type of error Frequency of errors (%) Minor errors 5 to 80 Delayed or missed diagnosis 26 to 78 Treatment errors 11 to 42 Five basic principles for preventing errors Practitioner memory: Practitioner memory is one of the most important assets…
