Question

Write a paragraph or two explaining what it means for a health care worker to Acknowledge and Disclose Medical Errors. Write half page.

Answer 1

Medical errors are defined as errors committed by the health professionals which results in harms to the patient. These include errors in diagnosis, administration of drugs and other medications, in the performance of surgical procedures, in the use of types of therapy and in the use of equipments. It is also defined as the failure of an intended action to be completed as intended in its execution.

For a health care worker it becomes his/her ethical responsibility to provide safe treatment to its patients. Medical errors can be a cause of death, and it is a leading cause of death in the US. Hence, it needs to be addressed.

For a health care worker errors may not be an ethics problems always, but the manner in which health care worker respond to errors may pose ethics concerns.The reasons for this are:

-Many hospitals and clinics lack mandatory reporting policies, so errors are not reported or charted.

-Even if the policies are recognized, health care worker may feel a guilt and blame or fear so they choose not to acknowledge these errors.

-In many cases it is seen that these errors are discussed only behind closed doors between providers and administrators. Patients and families aren’t told when errors have occurred or the corrective actions taken.

-Also, many times an error is not an individual person’s fault but a team's problem.Hence, the disclosure of medical errors becomes an individual issue because only one person knows about it.

Hence, to conclude, beyond the job duty to the patient or the hospital,the worker has the responsibility to practice honest medicine and be truthful and disclose errors as it is about the life of a person.