Do Medical Devices Increase the Risk of Medical Errors | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

There has been much discussion about the overwhelming number of preventable medical errors made each year and how those errors often result in serious injury to patients, and tragically, these medical errors can also be fatal. However, much of the focus of medical errors has been on medical personnel and not enough focus on the role medical devices may play in many of these dangerous medical mistakes.

Blood pressure cuffs, infusion pumps, pulse oximeters, ventilators, and electronic health records are all meant to improve the quality of health care, however, one medical survey found that many of those professionals who use these devices think they contribute to mistakes during a patient’s treatment.

More than 500 nurses participated in the study and more than 60 percent of them said there is a significant increase in the risk of medical errors because medical devices are not connected and do not share data. Instead, medical personnel must spend too much time to manually enter all of this information – time that is spent away from actually caring for the patient.

 

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Not only does this time take away from patient care, having to input information in so many different places also leads to incorrect data being entered. More than half of the nurses surveyed said they had witnessed medical errors occurring because of the lack of interoperability of medical devices.

Our Virginia medical malpractice law firm has successfully represented many victims who were seriously injured by surgical and medical errors made by the very people who were supposed to heal them. Our malpractice attorneys have also fought for the families of victims who died from those medical mistakes.

Many of injuries sustained through medical errors often result in long-term recovery for the patient and not only involves increased medical costs and loss of income but also increased pain and personal losses for the victim. Anyone who has suffered injuries from a preventable medical error should contact a skilled Virginia malpractice attorney to discuss what legal options they may have.