5 Ways Hospitals Can Reduce Medical Errors

Mistakes can happen in all workplaces and are often simple to prevent. Yet, many companies fail to put in the time and effort to reduce them.

If all a mistake affects the company’s bottom line or image, it is up to them so they don’t have to deal with the adverse implications associated with them. However, hospitals and their employees face far worse consequences if their actions result in an adverse outcome.

Mistakes in Hospitals Can Have Catastrophic Consequences

Here are some actions hospitals should take to prevent errors:

1. Careful staff scheduling: How you schedule staff affects their ability to turn up to work rested and alert.

2. Encourage reporting mistakes: When someone admits a mistake, you often find others have had similar experiences, suggesting a problem with the training, system or equipment.

3. Encourage staff to ask questions if they’re unsure: Medicine can be a competitive environment. People need to show they are the best candidate to get into medical school or gain a prestigious promotion. It can lead to doctors who think asking for help is a sign of weakness. That makes them more likely to plow ahead when they are unsure instead of getting a second opinion.

4. Encourage better communication with patients: Doctors can minimize errors by engaging with patients more thoroughly.

5. Implement a system of checks: You can now get surgical items with a barcode to help ensure staff does not leave something inside the patient after surgery. It is one of many ways that technology can act as a check for doctors. Combining technological checks with a system of human checks would reduce errors made.

If you have suffered due to a hospital worker’s mistake, it is crucial to understand if the hospital did all it could to prevent such an error from happening. If they did not take adequate precautions, it makes it more likely that you’ll need to file a medical malpractice claim.