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Medical mistakes contribute to 250,000 deaths every year, making them one of the leading causes of preventable fatalities. Some of these deaths occur due to genuine mistakes by healthcare professionals, while others are due to medical negligence or medical malpractice.
When a patient is harmed or injured due to negligence or malpractice, they can sue the healthcare provider for the damages. Read on to learn about some of the most common medical errors so you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself.
Medication Errors
Medication errors are among the most common errors in healthcare systems globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 50% of all preventable medical errors are due to the inappropriate use of medicines and other treatments.
The most common types of medication errors are:
- Administration Errors: Administration errors may involve using the wrong route of administration, giving drugs to the wrong patient, administering expired drugs, or failing to give the right dose to a patient
- Prescribing Errors: Prescription errors account for a significant percentage of all medication errors. They can happen at any point of the prescription process and often involve errors such as inappropriate or ineffective prescribing, omitting or delaying prescriptions, and under- or over-prescribing medication.
- Labeling and Packaging Mistakes: Unclear instructions or poorly labeled medication can confuse patients. As a result, they might end up taking the wrong dose or using the drug incorrectly.
Diagnostic Errors
Late diagnosis or incorrect diagnosis can be deadly to a patient in dire need of medical care. When a physician or hospital fails to diagnose a condition on time, the patient’s condition might deteriorate over time, leading to serious complications or even death.
Common diagnostic errors include:
- Failure to diagnose a disease: For instance, when doctors fail to diagnose colon cancer in a patient who presents bowel irritability, rectal bleeding, and a positive family history, they can be sued for it.
- Wrong diagnosis: A wrong diagnosis happens when a doctor misidentifies a medical condition, leading to delayed or incorrect treatment. For instance, a patient with chest pains and shortness of breath can be diagnosed with bronchitis instead of a pulmonary embolism, leading to serious complications or death.
- Delayed diagnosis: Delayed diagnosis is when a doctor fails to identify a condition in time, leading to delayed treatment and health complications. A good example of delayed diagnosis is when a doctor dismisses early symptoms of cancer, like fatigue or weight loss, until the cancer reaches an advanced stage. This delayed diagnosis makes treatment more difficult.
Labor And Delivery Errors
There are certain complications during labor and delivery that are beyond a doctor’s control. However, some complications are preventable with the right care and early diagnosis.
Common mistakes leading to birth injuries include the following:
- Improper use of labor induction methods
- Misuse of forceps or vacuum extractors
- Failure to detect signs of fetal distress
- Inability to prevent preterm labor
- Failure to recognize symptoms of uterine rupture
- Lack of timely intervention in cases of maternal distress
Errors In The Laboratory
Mistakes in lab testing can have serious consequences, especially when dealing with life-threatening conditions. The most common yet preventable lab mistakes include the following:
- Data Entry Errors: Data entry can be a big problem for medical labs that still manually enter patient test requests into their systems. It can cause errors such as misinterpretation of handwriting, typing errors, and misplaced or lost records. To minimize these mistakes, medical labs should use modern laboratory information systems to streamline the data entry process.
- Patient Identification Errors: Mistakes in patient identification can lead to misdiagnosis or incorrect treatment.
- Expired Reagents: Lab reagents have a limited shelf life, after which their chemical properties change. Using expired reagents can affect lab results significantly, affecting the process of diagnosing and treating patients. To avoid such issues, medical facilities should follow the manufacturer’s instructions regarding the storage and expiration dates of reagents.
Surgical Errors
Surgical errors are quite common yet preventable. In fact, they make up a big percentage of medical negligence claims. Most of these incidences occur due to a lack of proper training, miscommunication, and distractions during a surgical procedure. Depending on how serious the situation is, the patient can suffer serious injuries, infections, or even death.
Some of the most common surgical errors that often lead to medical negligence claims include:
- Performing a surgical procedure negligently: This happens when a surgeon or medical professional fails to follow the established standard of care, leading to harm or complications for the patient. Common examples include wrong-site surgery, incorrect placement of screws, and leaving surgical tools inside the body.
- Delay in performing a surgical procedure: Sometimes, a patient might need urgent surgery to save their life. If the doctors fail to respond in time, the patient might suffer serious complications, sometimes leading to death.
- Failure to properly control and prevent infection at the surgical site: It’s easy to get an infection at the surgery site. However, the surgeon should take the right precautions to reduce the risk of infections. They should sterilize their equipment well, prescribe antibiotics, and monitor the patient after surgery. Failure to do so can lead to serious complications, and the patient can sue them for medical negligence.
- Recommending and carrying out high-risk surgery that is not medically necessary: Surgery is a risky procedure that should be performed only when necessary. If a doctor recommends surgery when it’s not medically necessary, they can be sued for medical negligence.
- Failure to perform necessary surgical treatment when medically required. Surgery should be a last resort, but sometimes it’s the most effective treatment. When a doctor doesn’t recommend surgery when it’s clearly necessary, it can be considered medical negligence.
Protect Yourself Against Medical Errors
Some medical errors are due to genuine human errors, while others are caused by negligence and malpractice. Regardless of the situation, you can sue the hospital or healthcare provider should their actions cause harm to you or your loved one.
To protect yourself, you should always ask questions and seek second opinions.
