Shollenberger Januzzi & Wolfe, LLP

What contributes to medical mistakes?

Our system of medical care isn’t perfect. Yet that’s no excuse for the untold medical errors that harm innocent patients every year. In fact, according to researchers at John Hopkins, medical malpractice is surpassed only by heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death among Americans.

It’s clear that preventable medical mistakes occur with shocking regularity. What’s less clear, however, is what exactly contributes to these errors. One would think that life-saving advances in modern medicine would lead to a lower incidence of mistakes. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Medical mistakes often result from a complex mix of human, technological and institutional failures, which can be difficult to pinpoint. Researchers have nonetheless identified some common threads that run through many medical errors. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, these include:

As you can see, many factors pave the way for inexcusable errors. Individuals and institutions at all levels of the health care system have a weighty responsibility to keep patients safe.