Saying sorry for medical mistakes
Ireland is not unique in this, as errors occur in every healthcare system in the world. The international evidence is that one-in-10 patients admitted to hospital suffer from adverse events such as medication-related errors, surgical errors, healthcare-associated infections, medical device failures, errors in diagnosis, and failure to follow up on test results.
Why do these errors happen? Healthcare professionals are taught that errors are unacceptable: No diagnosis, allergy or previous medical problem can be missed; every test must be tracked down; every medication dose must be exactly right.
