title: Why the need to reduce medical errors is not obvious.
abstract: According to Leape & Berwick (2000) the need to reduce medical errors is 'obvious and the mandate is clear'. My article questions this assertion. I go beyond the unknown incidence of medical errors in a general medical population to suggest that the meaning of medical errors is itself equivocal. I contest the assumption that the 'wrongness' of medical errors is always problematic, arguing instead for a distinction between desirable errors and undesirable errors. This distinction takes into account the consequences of errors, and why they may occur. Reasons include the inappropriateness of two cultural contexts--evidence-based medicine and continuous quality improvement--within which patient safety standards can be constructed and hence, medical errors can be defined.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. s.buetow@auckland.ac.nz
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Buetow
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000592:standards; D010358:Patient Participation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards