Medical errors and safety

Medical errors and patient safety issues have been a growing concern over the past decade. They were the focus of the 1999 Institute of Medicine\u27s report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. This report brought public awareness to problems that were already familiar to clinicians. Dialysis centers are at potential risk for medical errors and safety problems due to the complexity of their equipment, the need for staff to have precise clinical skills, and the fact that their patients are very sick. This article identifies types of medical errors and safety issues (e.g., system problems, which are identified as the top cause of medical errors) that are seen in dialysis centers, plus offers methods (e.g., risk management) to deal with them