Should medical laboratorians admit mistakes?
Medical errors are a significant cause of adverse patient outcomes. However, the culture of health care expects laboratorians and other caregivers to perform perfectly at all times. When mistakes occur, the emphasis often is placed on punishing the "guilty" rather than on analyzing and improving the processes that allowed the mistake to happen. Owing to a fear of punishment, laboratory staff may be afraid to report errors and mishaps. Therefore, opportunities to learn from mistakes may not be recognized. In this article, a laboratory case study is used to describe the characteristics of medical errors and the ethical dilemmas presented to care-givers when mistakes occur. The legal and cultural barriers that often prevent the handling of medical mistakes in an ethical manner also are discussed. Finally, current initiatives proposed to improve the manner of dealing with medical mistakes are described.
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D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000592:standards; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D015279:Organizational Culture; D012308:Risk Management; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014481:United States