In some ways, the medical system sets itself up for failure.  The caring professionals involved, doctors and nurses, are sometimes placed in a terrible situation where mistakes are inevitable.  For example, in a case I am currently litigating, the patient was seen at different clinics within the same practice group.  Each different physician that she saw often had no access to her medical records.  They had to start all over.  They didn't know what tests had been ordered or performed, the results of them, or any other critical information.  Is it any wonder errors result? 

Another "systems" factor which leads to errors are overworked and tired health care providers.  Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to providers is too small and has not kept pace with inflation.  Reimbursement provided by many health insurance companies is inadequate.  The result is that doctors and hospitals must take on more and more patients for less money.  Corporate owned hospitals, in an eternal quest for more profits, must cut costs every way possible.  This often leads to inadequate staffing where nurses must look after far too many patients.  Again, the system sets the stage for mistakes. 

In the age of computers, most hospitals and physicians still use plain paper and pen to keep records, write prescriptions, and make orders.  Each time these hand-written records are copied or reviewed, the potential for error exists.  Medication errors are particularly common and can cause terrible injuries and death.

There are some positive signs.  Here in Utah, some hospitals and have implemented electronic record keeping systems which could help reduce errors.  Patients in some hospitals wear bar coded bracelets which are scanned to help insure proper medication and dosage.  Institutional changes can make a dramatic difference. 

For more information about medical systems and how they can be improved to reduce error, I recommend these two books:  Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, Robert Wachter, M.D., and Kaveh G. Shojania, M.D.  and Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business- and Bad Medicine, Donald Barlett and James B. Steele.