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To Err is Human!!

Dr. Walaa Salman Abdel Hamid Salman

Corresponding author.
Walaa Salman Abdel Hamid Salman
Ass. Lecturer, MD, SCU, Quality Specialist, AICPD

Abastract

Medical Errors become the third leading cause of death among Americans in 2016. Approximately 1 in 4 hospital patients suffer from harm. In the United States medical errors result in 44000-98000 deaths each year and 1000000 excess injuries. Many factors contribute to frequent medical error like un-experienced clinicians and healthcare professionals, introduction of new procedures, patient at extremes of age, complex care, urgent care, and prolonged hospital stay. By 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a reports entitled “To Err is Human”, then by 2001 “Crossing the Quilty Chasm” to arose the international attention to medical errors and patient safety.The international patient safety goals were introduced internationally to overcome the most error prone areas in healthcare facilities all over the world. Not so long after patient safety generally published as the avoidance,prevention, and amelioration of adverse outcomes or injuries stemming from the processes of healthcare. It is considered as subset of healthcare quality. By establishing non-punitive environment and no-blame culture a variety of preventable adverse events and medical errors started to be documented and analysed. Therefore, medical error defined as an act of commission or omission that leads to an undesirable outcome or significant potential for such an outcome. Meanwhile the near miss and medication error emerged followed by distinguishing between different times of medical error either due to human factor prone malpractice or negligence.British psychologist James Reason defines an unsafe act as “an error or a violation committed in thepresence of a potential hazard”. Unsafe acts may be categorized as either errors or violations. Errors may be further categorized as slips, lapses, and mistakes.

Biography

• Ass. Prof. Family Medicine, Technical Manager for Family Practice centers, Suez Canal University, Egypt
• Master degree in Family Medicine (April 2007)
• MD in Family Medicine (Oct. 2019)
• HealthCare Quality Management Diploma (AICPD 2021)
• Comprehensive Diabetes Care Diploma (ongoing)