Medical errors

Medical errors are one of the leading cause of deaths in the U.S. A recent study from John Hopkins suggests that nearly 250,000 Americans die each year because of medical errors. 64.55% of the nurses at some point in their career have committed some sort of error and 31.37% of the participants reported medication errors on the verge of occurrence. Even with such alarming death rate, Medical errors are an under-recognized cause of death. 

From my own experiences in India, I always had questions about patient safety and the inefficiencies in the healthcare sector. During my secondary research, I realized how medical errors is one the biggest causes of injury and death here in the U.S as well. These preventable deaths not only have a huge impact on the lives of the patients and their families but also affects the doctors and nurses involved in their care. Healthcare system is complex with many overworked experts from different departments and facilities working together to save lives. Some of the identified reasons behind these errors are - Inadequate information flow, poor communication between departments, incomplete transfer of knowledge & inadequate staffing patterns and workflow. As a designer trained to think on a systemic level,  I wish to work on understanding the root causes within this complex system through primary research and then hope to come up with useful solutions.

List of books

1)  Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It - Book by James B. Lieber

2) Anatomy of Medical Errors: The Patient in Room 2 - Book by Donna Helen Crisp

3) To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System - Report issued in November 1999 by the U.S. Institute of Medicine

4) Medical Errors and Medical Narcissism - Book by John D. Banja

5) Wall of silence - Book by Rosemary Gibson

List of Articles

1) John Hopkins study - https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/05/03/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death/

2) Common causes of medical errors - https://alwaysculture.com/hcahps/8-most-common-causes-of-medical-errors/

3) Stories on medical errors -  https://listverse.com/2016/01/30/10-nightmarish-stories-about-terrifying-medical-errors/

Thinkers to follow

1) Atul Gawande

2) Dr. Brian Goldman

3) Leilani Schweitzer

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!