Medical Error Prevention and Safety

Course Summary

During the course of a health care professional’s career, a medical error may be made or be discovered. There are some mistakes, called “medical errors”, that can be serious and may cause irreversible harm to a patient and irreparable damage to a health care professional's career. Events that lead to a medical error are many, but the end result always involves the patient suffering harm that could have been prevented. Preventable events are defined as those that should not have happened, and, more specifically, should indicate to the health care professional that gaps in practice exist related to the appropriate levels of attention, communication, knowledge, and planning.