Medical errors are a significant global public health issue, ranking among the leading causes of death, with an estimated 250,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone. In India, approximately 5.2 million medical errors occur each year. The document defines medical errors and emphasizes the importance of reporting near misses to prevent future occurrences.

1. BURDEN AND TYPES OF MEDICAL ERRORS

2. YOUR HEALTH CARE MAY KILL YOU
-By Medical Errors

3. Patient safety is a serious global public health concern.
There is a 1 in a million chance of a person being harmed
while travelling by plane.
In comparison, there is a 1 in 300 chance of a patient being
harmed during health care.

5. Globally, medical errors are one of the leading causes of
death.
A John Hopkins study claims that more than 2,50,000
people die in the US every year from medical errors, and
it is the third leading cause of death after heart disease and
cancer
Makary & Daniel et al, 2016

6.  Based on extrapolated data from various studies in the year 2020-
 of 35,416,020 hospitalizations, medical errors cause 251,454 deaths
per year.
 This translated to 9.5% of all deaths per year.
 According to a Harvard study, 5.2 million medical errors occur
in India annually.

8. SENTINEL EVENTS
An unexpected occurrence involving death or
serious physical, psychological injury.

9. MEDICAL ERROR HAS BEEN
DEFINED AS….
An unintended act (either of omission or commission) or
One that does not achieve its intended outcome, or
The failure of a planned action to be completed as intended (an
error of execution), the use of a wrong plan or
A deviation from the process of care that may or may not cause
harm to the patient.

11. NEAR MISSES
Error that occurs but does not injure or harm patients
because they are caught in time simply because of luck.
Very important to report; so that next time it can be
prevented from happening.