Preventable Errors: Why Do They Still Occur?

Even with all the developments in technology and the intensive training of nurses and other members of the health care team, why do medical errors still occur? These might only be simple mistakes yet it causes complications and sometimes even the deaths of the clients. An example of this would be the near deaths of Dennis Quaid’s twins.

You might have remembered Denis Quaid from his movie The Parent Trap in 1998 where he played the father of identical twins, played by young Lindsay Lohan, who were separated from each other and accidentally met at a summer camp. Another movie he starred in is Yours, Mine and Ours in 2006 where he played a widower admiral with eight children who married his high school sweetheart Helen North who has ten children.

Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins were hospitalized last November for an infection. A nurse misread the label of Heparin, an adult strength blood thinner, for Hep-lock, a weaker version of it, and administered a major dose to the babies. This resulted to massive bleeding where the twelve days old infants nearly died.

The infants were lucky to have survived. There are many errors like these that happens in hospitals all over the world and some of the clients do not make it.

These are errors which could have been avoidable but why do they still happen? The fault could be placed on the health care team members, the hospital system and also the manufacturers of medical supplies.

The health care team, especially the nurses have large salaries for what they do. They are being justly compensated for their services which requires a lot of skill so they should also be fair to their clients and do their jobs well.

The manufacturers of medical supplies also play an important role in this. They should take steps to clearly label their products to prevent misreading them. Most errors in drug administration usually starts from this.

Medical errors can be prevented and peoples lives can be saved. As part of the health care team, we nurses should do our best to render quality care with swift and efficiency that is expected of us.

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