Medical Issues Today

There are many legal and medical issues today that relate to patient safety in this paper I will be addressing Medical errors, how they can be improved by today’s technological advances, and problems that occur in making these improvements. A study done by Kaiser indicates that medication errors have doubled in the last 10 years and that serious injuries have gone from 35,000 in 1998 to 90,000 in 2005. Those errors occur by a breakdown in one of the many steps that go into the giving of those medications to patients. Areas of breakdown occur in proscribing, transcribing, dispensing and the administrations of those medications. Another issue that affects patient safety is the huge differences that can occur when patients with the same medical conditions are treated differently depending on where they receive their medical care.
A third problem that is affecting patient’s safety is the accuracy and completeness of their medical records and charts Technology and advanced information systems can go a long way in improving safety to everyone in the world. Patients and medical staff a like. Some advances in technology available today are Clinical decision support systems. These are interactive computer programs. There are many different programs that have been created and that are available. These programs have a medical knowledge base and a set of rules derived from experts in various fields. It integrates evidenced-based medicine and helps to set standards for care that are universal. It cuts down on errors that are made my medical personals decision making. It also helps to educate the medical professionals in areas that might not be an area of their expertise. This is especially helpful in rural areas where general physicians are more common then specific experts in various fields are Where medications are concerned, there are programs that can automatically calculate doses based on the weight and the age of the person that they are being