Why do medical errors happen?
Health care experts and patient safety advocates agree that medical errors occur largely because the system relies on an outdated infrastructure that has not kept pace with a fast-moving industry. “The issue is not an issue of bad providers giving bad care. It’s the fact that you have care being delivered in an incredibly complex system, on an organism that is incredibly complex,” said Diane C. Pinakiewicz, interim executive director and member of the board at the National Patient Safety Foundation. “The science of medicine has progressed geometrically over the years. What has not happened as rapidly is improvement in the processes.” These processes underlie how practitioners learn about new research, how patient information is stored, and how clinicians interact with each other and their patients.
