Stopping Medical Mistakes Ahead of Time

MYFOXNY.COM - In the often busy world of a hospital, a small error can mean the difference between life and death. Now there is a new way for doctor and hospitals to learn from mistakes before they even happen

According to the institute of medicine every year medical errors made in hospitals are estimated to cause 44,000 to 98,000 deaths.. And all of them could have been prevented but doctors are often reluctant to admit when mistakes are made.

Its not a culture that allows us to freely talk about errors , said Dr. Ethan Fried, an internal medicine specialist. He is the Vice Chairman for Education for the Department of Medicine at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan and he's also the creator of the near miss registry, which is an online reporting system for near miss medical mistakes.

Near miss medical errors are errors that are committed and then corrected before they ever reach the patient and he says that reporting and learning from near misses can keep them from happening again.

The near miss registry allows doctors to anonymously report details of the mistake and how it was ultimately corrected before harming the patient. The goal is to learn what works and what doesn't.

The registry is being called a treasure trove of information about the weaknesses in healthcare delivery. For instance the registry tracks sound alike medications that could be mixed up.
One reported near miss involved a malaria drug quinine that was almost confused with quinidine a medication used for an irregular heart rhythm.

The concept of near miss reporting began with the airline industry. The aviation safety reporting system was created in 1976. It collects confidential voluntary reports of close calls from air traffic controllers, flight attendants, and pilots.

“If a pilot makes a mistake, rather than try to hide it, they encourage you to tell them what happened and they track trends,” said James Ray, a spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association. He's also been a commercial pilot for the last 25 years. He says that pilots fill out a form anytime a near miss occurs, knowing their career won't be jeopardized.

“Rather than punish or slap them on the hand or take a license away, they might recognize a problem with they system. They say lets fix the system so those mistakes don't happen again.

How successful has it been? “It’s been absolutely, very successful in the field there are errors. What we realize is as much as we'd like to believe pilots are perfect, we're not and we do make mistakes., Ray said.

That change in attitude is what many say is needed in the medical world as well.

The project is funded by the New York State Department of Health and it began in 2006. It's only been used in medical residents thus far but the program will be expanding in January 2010 and then again in 2011.