What are the Top Types of Medical Errors?
In a medical setting, you expect expertise, guidance and care. You don’t expect mistakes. However, medical errors are more common than you may think. Here are the most common ones, according to a recent study:
- Surgical Errors, such as operating on the wrong site, patient, or procedure, are serious and account for 75% of malpractice cases involving surgeons. Common causes include being rushed, distractions, fatigue, poor communication, staffing issues, mislabeling specimens, and cognitive mistakes.
- Diagnostic Errors occur when a health issue is not identified accurately or communicated properly, including delayed or missed diagnoses. They affect about 12 million U.S. patients annually, with 33% leading to injury. These errors are most common in solo primary care practices due to heavy workloads and limited collaboration. Commonly misdiagnosed issues include cancers, surgical complications, and neurological, cardiac, and urological conditions. Contributing factors include clinician fatigue, distractions, knowledge gaps, and poor follow-up care.
- Medication Errors, often preventable, can occur during prescribing, dispensing, dosing, or administration. Common mistakes include giving outdated drugs, confusing similar-sounding medications, or bypassing safety measures.
- Device and Equipment Errors. While medical technology enhances healthcare, it can also introduce errors. With over 5,000 types of devices used globally, mistakes are inevitable due to design flaws, user errors, malfunctions, and inadequate maintenance. Common issues include tubing and catheter misconnections, which can cause life-threatening complications like delivering medications or feeding tubes to the wrong location. Implanted devices, such as pacemakers, can also malfunction, leading to severe risks.
- Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) affect up to 1 in 20 hospitalized patients, increasing complications, length of stay, and healthcare costs by nearly $35 billion annually. Common HAIs include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and skin and soft tissue infections. Poor hand hygiene and improper catheter placement are primary contributors.
- Patient Falls: Each year, more than one-third of people over 65 experience a fall, with one-third resulting in injury. In healthcare settings, factors such as medication side effects, blood loss, altered mental status, and decreased strength or balance can increase the risk. Other contributing factors include advanced age, mobility impairment, and inadequate staffing.
- Communication Failures, often caused by distractions, language barriers, hierarchy issues, or cultural differences, can lead to adverse events. Disruptive patient behavior, environmental distractions, and socioeconomic factors can also impair communication.
While there is a good amount of evidence that must be compiled, and the burden of proving negligence is often challenging, having a top Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer take your case will go a long way in prevailing. Tom Duffy has obtained recoveries and settlements from most of the large teaching hospitals and universities in the Philadelphia area. Please contact us to see if he can help you, too.