THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MEDICAL ERRORS IN
HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS
The issue of an efficient healthcare service delivery by the National Health Service (NHS) and other healthcare providers has consistently occupied the first position amongst other objectives to be maximized by the government, healthcare organization, and the patient, this is due to several factors such reduction in cost of service delivery; increasing competition amongst healthcare service providers; quest to raise life expectancy of the citizens, just to mention but few. Health economic theoreticians and analyst have long understood and recorded a deteriorating health state and several medical claims by patients resulting from errors in medical practices, thus gave rise …show more content…
An error is an occurrence of inaccuracy in the calculation, however, in health economics parlance, medical error is a preventable adverse outcome of medical care resulting from inappropriate medical care which could be improper medical management or progression of an illness due to lack of care. According to Shreve, et al (2010), medical errors that occur due to medical intervention or lack of it; these include injuries , allergic reactions to medication, increased medical costs, costs related to an increased mortality rate, and costs related to lost productivity after the occurrence of an error. Other costs are pain and suffering, malpractice costs and insurance payments. Medical errors are subset of medical injuries (Shreve et al, 2010)
Furthermore, considering the economic impact of medical errors on healthcare organizations, there is the need for us to view it via the economic microscope. This, in part, reflects both the economic cost and benefit of errors committed, incurred or gained in the cause medical practice on organizations that offer health care but also reflects the general ambiguity relating to the economic effect of medical errors rather than an error in its
HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS
The issue of an efficient healthcare service delivery by the National Health Service (NHS) and other healthcare providers has consistently occupied the first position amongst other objectives to be maximized by the government, healthcare organization, and the patient, this is due to several factors such reduction in cost of service delivery; increasing competition amongst healthcare service providers; quest to raise life expectancy of the citizens, just to mention but few. Health economic theoreticians and analyst have long understood and recorded a deteriorating health state and several medical claims by patients resulting from errors in medical practices, thus gave rise …show more content…
An error is an occurrence of inaccuracy in the calculation, however, in health economics parlance, medical error is a preventable adverse outcome of medical care resulting from inappropriate medical care which could be improper medical management or progression of an illness due to lack of care. According to Shreve, et al (2010), medical errors that occur due to medical intervention or lack of it; these include injuries , allergic reactions to medication, increased medical costs, costs related to an increased mortality rate, and costs related to lost productivity after the occurrence of an error. Other costs are pain and suffering, malpractice costs and insurance payments. Medical errors are subset of medical injuries (Shreve et al, 2010)
Furthermore, considering the economic impact of medical errors on healthcare organizations, there is the need for us to view it via the economic microscope. This, in part, reflects both the economic cost and benefit of errors committed, incurred or gained in the cause medical practice on organizations that offer health care but also reflects the general ambiguity relating to the economic effect of medical errors rather than an error in its