Sunday, July 25, 2004
On Reducing Errors and Improving Quality
The following on medical errors and quality in health care comes from Dr. Claus Curdt-Christiansen, Chief Medical Officer of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency based in Montreal.
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Many years ago some major Civil Aviation Authorities (e.g., the CAA of the United Kingdom) introduced a reporting system of aeronautical errors and mistakes of all possible kinds where the point was to find out what went wrong and why but NOT to blame anyone for whatever went wrong. This has been a success and has led to a better understanding of the human factor's role in most incidents and accidents - and, more to the point, has helped reduce the number of annual aviation accidents in spite of increasing air travel.
If a similar system were to be introduced in the hospital world so that a doctor or a nurse could self-report any mistake he/she had made without risking any kind of repercussion, a data base of knowledge would soon be established from where we could draw on actual experience to suggest changes in practices and procedures aimed at improving health care quality.
The following on medical errors and quality in health care comes from Dr. Claus Curdt-Christiansen, Chief Medical Officer of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency based in Montreal.
…………………………………….
Many years ago some major Civil Aviation Authorities (e.g., the CAA of the United Kingdom) introduced a reporting system of aeronautical errors and mistakes of all possible kinds where the point was to find out what went wrong and why but NOT to blame anyone for whatever went wrong. This has been a success and has led to a better understanding of the human factor's role in most incidents and accidents - and, more to the point, has helped reduce the number of annual aviation accidents in spite of increasing air travel.
If a similar system were to be introduced in the hospital world so that a doctor or a nurse could self-report any mistake he/she had made without risking any kind of repercussion, a data base of knowledge would soon be established from where we could draw on actual experience to suggest changes in practices and procedures aimed at improving health care quality.
