Potential improvements in or solutions to the medical error challenge were the focus of several comments. Two themes emerged. The first was to look to technology for assistance in error-prone areas. Suggestions included a greater use of computer systems for order entry and to reduce reliance on memory by providing diagnostic suggestions, warnings, reminders, or checklists to ensure nothing significant is overlooked. The first is the search for perfection that permeates medical education.
Physicians are successful high achievers and intensely competitive individuals.
They are educated to have the right answers and are subject to censure or criticism when they make errors. Such training does not encourage open sharing of mistakes. In health care, liability insurers and plaintiff attorneys are the principal agents who seek to determine who is responsible and how much the injured party should be compensated. Regulators, agency and accreditation staff, and licensing bodies provide the censure by reducing or eliminating privileges and restricting or withdrawing licenses from individual practitioners or institutions. These practices drive in fear and encourage secrecy and withholding of information-practices that are antithetical to creating the openness necessary to learn from our mistakes.