Why Medical Errors Persist, And How To Avoid It

Did you know that according to a study conducted to more than 300,000 patients, at least twelve percent of preventable medical errors caused dismemberment or death? Technically, more than one out of ten patients were harmed during medical care.

These numbers are upsetting statistics and are technically telling us to do something about it. Let us define medical errors first. Medical errors are preventable circumstances that can be harmful to the patient. Factors of medical error include misdiagnosis and the mistreatment of a disease.

What Causes Medical Errors?

Based on the data provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there are eight causes of medical errors regarding mismanagement of health records that can greatly affect the overall course of healthcare:

  1. Problems in communication - Issues may arise during verbal, non-verbal, or written communications between people. May it be patients, doctors, nurses, and other medical health personnel. This is the most common source of medical errors.
  2. Bad data flow - In healthcare, organized and systematic processes are required to ensure the health of a patient. Thus, it’s possible that one dysfunctional area of the hospital or clinic may cause medical errors. Inadequate information flow can be a reason for loss of critical data for prescriptions, shortcomings in the delivery of test results, and bad coordination between departments.
  3. Human error - When someone violates the standards of care, policies, processes, or procedures, medical errors can occur. Poor documentation and misplacing or mislabeling specimens are examples of human problems.
  4. Issues related to the patient - when the patient is not recognized or identified properly, is not assessed prior to the hospitalization, did not provide consent, or has deficiency is education about his/her disease, it can cause medical errors.
  5. Knowledge transfer - Trainings and seminars for health professionals should be adequate and credible. Not being able to experience proper transfer of knowledge causes medical errors too.

How Can These Errors Be Avoided?

Generally, most of the causes of medical errors are related to misinformation and disorganization. To address these growing statistics, medical experts and technology wizards collaborated to create medical apps for iPhone and Android that provides help to patients and doctors like Sync MD.

Honing to be one of the best medical simulation apps for iPad and other devices, SyncMD functions as a patient-centric, free-to-use application that helps manage, share, and store a patient’s medical record. Having all your patient history in your smartphone is a convenient way to avoid medical errors. It keeps a record of all your medical procedures, laboratory results, allergen information, and other pertinent documents.

As responsible patients, help eradicate medical errors caused by misinformation and disorganization by downloading this breakthrough application. Visit their site here: syncmdopro.com.


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