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Incident Reports and Errors in Health Care

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Submitted By kennedy2010
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Marilyn Lewis
HSA 300
November 12, 2013

Incident Reports and Errors in Health Care

Millions of people are injured yearly due to medical errors in the health care industry. Moreover, with the many errors that exist, it can cost billions of dollars each year increasing health costs. There are many examples of medical errors that take place within hospitals, but the most common and frequent error is due to medications. Many people believe medication errors are the result of abbreviations handwritten by physicians. Medical errors are a global issue and although, it is the most common, it can be the most preventable (Null et al. 2009, 56) As stated in “Death by medicine”, it found that 18-28% of people who were recently ill had suffered from a medical or drug error in the previous two years (Null et al.2009, 48). The affects of these errors lead to lost wages or productivity cost of employees. A medication error can easily take place if correct measures are not followed. For example, administering the incorrect medication or dosage amount to the wrong patient can be of great concern, which can result in long term injuries based on the depth of which the error resulted from.
According to the American Association for Justice, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) preventable medical errors study estimated that at least 98,000 people die yearly totaling 29 billion dollars, which could have been prevented (www.Justice.org). In the past, errors were revealed primarily through a morbidity and mortality committee and malpractice claims data. In 1992, a yearlong survey was conducted by a national pharmacy database and found a total of 429,827 medication errors in over 1,081 hospitals (Null et al. 2009, 56).
In an environment where medication errors are commonly made how can errors be prevented or decreased? One way to help decrease the chances of experiencing

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