Medical Errors: Next Steps

• Date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.199
• Author: Bonnie Stabile,Thomas Zimmerman,Otmar Kloiber,Arnauld Nicogossian
• Published date: 01 September 2016

Editorial

Medical Errors: Next Steps

Arnauld Nicogossian, Bonnie Stabile, Otmar Kloiber, and Thomas Zimmerman

Two decades of advances in genomics, information technology, and precision

medicine hold the promise for better care and improved survival for patients with

chronic disorders. Patients expect that the health-care system, especially in

countries with a market economy, will continue to offer solutions and cures to

many illnesses. Yet, concerns over morbidity and mortality from unsafe health-care

practices continue to linger and erode patient conf‌idence. The Institute of Medicine

of the U.S. National Academies sounded the alarm on patient safety in a report

published 17 years ago and called for an examination of health care practices

(Institute of Medicine, 2000). Since then several epidemiological studies have been

conducted to determine the extent and causes of, and interventions for, adverse

medical events and patient safety (Jha et al., 2013; Kemp, Santana, Southern,

McCormack, & Quan, 2016; O’Hagan, MacKinnon, Persaud, & Etchegary, 2009).

A survey from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand,

the United Kingdom, and the United States estimated 12 to 20 percent adverse

events, with disability more common than mortality, and a higher disability-

adjusted life year (DALY) in developing countries (O’Hagan et al., 2009). The

authors estimate that seven types of adverse events considered in this study

constitute the 20th leading cause of morbidity and mortality for the world’s

population.

In the United States, medical errors and adverse effects (Grober & Bohenen,

2005; Makary & Daniel, 2016) continue to be at the center of controversy and are

the subject of continued news media headlines. One in seven U.S. Medicare

1

patients experiences a medical error (Agency for Healthcare Research and

Quality, 2014). Prescription drugs are reported for nearly 100,000 hospitalizations

each year. Many in-patient health institutions (hospitals) are increasingly employ-

ing physician hospitalists to care for the admissions. Transitions in care, from one

physician to another, or to a hospitalist, can lead to preventable harm related to

medications (Graham, Scudder, & Stokowski, 2015; Velo & Minuz, 2009).

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2016

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1948-4682 #2016 Policy Studies Organization

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