Errors, Medicine and the Law [Paperback]

Alan Merry (Author), Alexander McCall Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0521000882 | ISBN-13: 978-0521000888 | Edition: 1

Merry and McCall-Smith question the understandable, but often inappropriate, tendency to blame individuals for medical errors. They point out that the goal of safety is far better served by a sophisticated understanding of the difference between negligence and inevitable error, and by a frank recognition of just why human error occurs and how things go wrong in any complex system. Although medicine is used as the book's primary example, the points made apply equally to aviation, industrial activities, and many other fields of human endeavour.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A comprehensive exploration of the science of errors applied to healthcare..." Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing

Book Description

Merry and McCall-Smith question the understandable, but often inappropriate, tendency to blame individuals for medical errors. They point out that the goal of safety is far better served by a sophisticated understanding of the difference between negligence and inevitable error, and by a frank recognition of just why human error occurs and how things go wrong in any complex system. Although medicine is used as the book's primary example, the points made apply equally to aviation, industrial activities, and many other fields of human endeavour.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (August 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521000882
• ISBN-13: 978-0521000888
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting real about medical error, April 17, 2002

By 

C. S. Webster (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Errors, Medicine and the Law (Paperback)

When someone is hurt during medical treatment it is an understandable reaction to blame the doctor for the harm. However, the great majority of errors which occur in medicine are a simple consequence of conscientious doctors being fallible human beings just like the rest of us. Hospital systems are generally full of design faults which pre-dispose doctors to make mistakes. Blaming doctors for simply being human directs attention away from these design faults, reduces the chance that system improvements will be made, and makes it likely that the same error will repeat itself in the future - thus perpetuating patient harm. Human error cannot be avoided, but patient harm can, through better systems and procedures. Genuinely negligent acts do occur in medicine, but it is important that these are distinguished from the inevitable human errors of clinicians doing their best. This is a distinction which is also required in law to ensure fairness in both the prosecution of negligent doctors and the compensation of harmed patients. This book goes several steps beyond the Institute of Medicine Report ("To Err is Human") in identifying the mechanisms and nature of error within health care and in its detailed discussion of the intricacies of culpability, blame, violation, error, legal fairness, and patient safety.