Important Healthcare Advice to Prevent Medical Errors(2)

There are an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 people that die in U.S. hospitals each year as a result of medical errors. Medical errors are one of the Nation’s foremost reasons of death along with car accidents, breast cancer and AIDS.

Medical errors can happen anywhere such as in hospitals, clinics, outpatient surgery centers, doctors’ offices, and nursing homes. Such errors occur when something that is planned as a part of medical care doesn’t work out right or is done wrong. Errors can include medicines, surgery, wrong diagnosis, the equipment, or lab reports.

In order to help prevent medical errors from happening to you, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality advises prevention with 20 tips. To see the full list of tips, please click here.

The most important thing you can do to help prevent medical errors is to be involved in your health care, make your own decisions and inquiries.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice & Negligent Care Injuries.