Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Manager's Guide to Staff & Patient Safety - October 2016

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/731766

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 61 of 62

6 2 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 How much danger are patients in today? We're doing more procedures, prescribing more medications and making more diagnoses now than ever before, so there are more opportunities for mistakes to happen. My research shows that medical care gone wrong accounts for approxi- mately 250,000 patient deaths each year, making it the third leading cause of mortality in the United States. You don't like to label surgical mistakes as "errors." Why? The phrase "medical errors" creates a reaction that's emotional and territorial. It infers that an indi- vidual is at fault. "Medical care gone wrong" emphasizes the role systems play in mis- takes occurring and is more inclusive. Let's not play the blame game. Let's ana- lyze the system that led to the mistake. Are healthcare leaders aware of how often medical care goes wrong? No, because we use billing codes to tally causes of death. Medical care gone wrong should be measured with data collection infrastructure as strong as the one used to generate national cancer statistics. In the meantime, we rely on estimates from t's Time for Honest Discussions About Medical Care Gone Wrong I Marty Makary, MD, MPH Patient safety advocate and healthcare transparency proponent

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Manager's Guide to Staff & Patient Safety - October 2016