Medical Errors and Risk Management



Medical Errors and Risk Management

Introduction

The medical profession has not been aggressive enough in its pursuit of exploring the fundamental weaknesses in its organizational structures and individuals that repeatedly generate errors. There is little agreement on a specific definition of a medical error. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines medical error in its landmark study, To Err Is Human, as follows:

“An error is defined as the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (i.e., error of execution) or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (i.e., error of planning)”.

Medical errors ...