In ten pages this comprehensive medical error literature review includes articles, books, who or what is to blame and how the situation can be remedied. Ten sources are cited in the bibliography.
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can be done about it is at the crux of the review. Bibliography lists 10 sources. SA147err.rtf I. Introduction In
the medical profession, there are often problems where doctors are negligent or lines are crossed and patients take the wrong dose of medication. Often, nurses are asked to carry out
doctors orders. They, along with pharmacists are supposed to be able to read the physicians handwriting. Many errors result from a failure of written communication. Sometimes errors are human and
have nothing to do with the inability to read doctors scribble. There are misdiagnoses that are effected due to the fact that the doctors are overbooked. Perhaps someone with a
rare disease will enter an office, but the physician is too busy and does not make that one leap to get a test that could tell whether or not the
patient has a particular rare malady. Thus, he sends the patient home to wait and see. If the malady is dangerous, it is possible that negligence could have been a
part of such a doctors busy schedule. While anecdotes of malpractice are plentiful, it is not always the physicians who make mistakes. Mistakes are sometimes made in transcribing data, or
at the level of the practical or registered nurse. If patient data is not appropriately entered a physician might miss an important symptom for diagnosis or an allergy that could
pose a life or death problem. In reviewing literature on this subject, there are many points of view as to what causes medical errors, and how solutions may be found.
II. Review of the Literature Kohn, Corrigan, Donaldson & Donaldson (2000) present a volume where medical mistakes are highlighted. The work