Continuing Education Activity

This activity provides an in-depth description of the significance of medical error in the practice of medicine. It also highlights a number of important aspects in the prevention of error and the development of a culture of safety. It reviews the role of an interprofessional team in improving care for all patients.

Objectives:

• Describe the two major types of errors and how these two types of errors can negatively impact patient care.
• Outline the most important Joint Commission Patient Safety Goals including challenges in error accountability and the barriers to error reporting.
• Identify the difference between active and latent errors, as well the difference between adverse, negative adverse, sentinel, and never events.
• Summarize the importance of collaboration and communication among interprofessional team members to mitigate preventable errors and improve outcomes for all patients.