Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T08:21:06.450Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Helping Clinicians Find Resolution after a Medical Error

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2003

CRAIG POLLACK
Affiliation:
University of California, San Francisco
CAROL BAYLEY
Affiliation:
Catholic Healthcare West
MICHAEL MENDIOLA
Affiliation:
Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, and the Bay Area Faith and Health Consortium
STEPHEN McPHEE
Affiliation:
University of California, San Francisco

Extract

Clinicians, operating within complex systems, make mistakes, as people do in every human endeavor, and when they do, patients are sometimes harmed. One important question is how we as clinicians can find resolution in the wake of an error. The published literature has divided errors into those caused by “systems” and by “individuals.” But whereas both “systems” and “individual” approaches are important in understanding the cause of an error, neither alone can fully lead to resolution once an error has occurred. Instead, both are necessary to understand, resolve, and prevent errors.

Type
PERSPECTIVES
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)