Medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in the United States and are becoming a
public health problem. a
Medical errors are not reported because of several reasons. They include fear of retribution:
Most employees or organizations fear action against them if these errors are reported. Safety
does not seem to be the priority of the health care organizations as other requirements of the
health care reform have taken more time and money. The productivity demands also have led
to more medical errors as the focus is on quality than quantity (Shaw, 2012).
Medical errors do not get reported due to the fear of legal consequences such as a malpractice
lawsuit, losing patients’ trust, emotional reactions of the patients and their relatives, or fear of
losing a job, etc. Other reasons include the lack of attention to the importance of medical
errors and the unavailability of an effective medical error reporting system (Poorolajal et al,
2015).
a a a a a a a a a a a Health care leaders must promote a culture of safety at their organizations and provide
the resources and time for the employees to work productively and safely at the same time.
Health care organizations must adopt a process of full disclosure of medical errors. They
should have an incident reporting system, a multidisciplinary claims review committee,
promote open and honest communication with patients and families, and should develop
quality-improvement (QI) initiatives guided by reported errors (Gina, 2012). Reporting errors
is vital to preventing errors. a The presence of a well-organized reporting system is essential
for effective medical error prevention programs.
References
Poorolajal, J., Rezaie, S., & Aghighi, N. (2015). Barriers to Medical Error Reporting.
International journal of preventive medicine, 6, 97. https://doi.org/10.4103/2008-
7802.166680
Rodziewicz, T. L., Houseman, B., & Hipskind, J. E. (2022). Medical Error Reduction and
Prevention. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Shaw, G. (2012). Most Adverse Events at Hospitals Still Go Unreported. Retrieved from
https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/125141/most-adverse-events-hospitals-still-
go-unreported
