What Are the Most Common Medical Errors? (2024)

When you are hurt or sick, the last thing you want to worry about is the skill and decision-making abilities of the medical professionals providing your care. But sometimes the actions or inactions of those professionals can cause further and significant harm, which qualifies as medical malpractice.

This type of negligence occurs more than you might think. One Johns Hopkins study reports that over 250,000 deaths occur annually in the U.S. due to medical errors, ranking it as the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. How do you know if a harm was due to negligence? And what are the most common medical errors? To better understand this issue, we’ll explain what is happening and why in this article.

Most Common Types of Medical Errors That Lead to Medical Malpractice Claims

While the actual number of medical malpractice lawsuits remains relatively low because these cases are notoriously complex and require substantial evidence, those with the strongest claim involve a severe harm that was typically due to:

Diagnostic Errors

Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can lead to incorrect treatment, delayed treatment, or no treatment at all, potentially exacerbating the patient’s condition or causing new health issues. Diagnostic errors are consistently one of the most common types of medical errors, year after year.

Surgical Errors

These can range from operating on the wrong body part and leaving surgical instruments inside the patient to performing the incorrect procedure. Surgical errors can often cause significant harm or death.

Medication Errors

This includes prescribing the wrong medication, giving incorrect dosages, or administering a drug that interacts adversely with other medications the patient is taking.

Birth Injuries

Errors during childbirth can harm both the baby and mother. Medical malpractice in this situation can include failure to monitor fetal distress, improper use of delivery tools, or not performing a necessary cesarean section in a timely manner.

Anesthesia Errors

Mistakes involving anesthesia can lead to permanent injury, brain damage, or death. These errors can include improper intubation, giving too much anesthesia, failing to monitor the patient's vital signs, or using defective equipment.

Failure to Treat

This occurs when a healthcare provider correctly diagnoses a condition but fails to treat it properly, often due to not following up with the patient or not referring the patient to a specialist.

Hospital Infections

When patients acquire infections in a healthcare setting as a result of non-sterile techniques, poor hand hygiene, or other lapses in infection control practices, it can be the basis of a medical malpractice suit.

Failure to Obtain Informed Consent

Healthcare providers must inform patients about the risks and benefits of treatments or procedures and who will be involved in their care or procedure, like residents or physicians in training. Failing to obtain informed consent before proceeding can be considered malpractice if the patient would have declined the treatment had they been fully informed.

Premature Discharge

Discharging a patient too early from the hospital can lead to a worsening of their condition or preventable complications.

Poor Documentation

Inaccurate or incomplete record-keeping can lead to errors in patient care, such as medication mistakes, failing to refer the patient to a specialist, unnecessary procedures, or failure to recognize a patient's allergy.

What Causes These Common Medical Errors to Occur?

Regardless of whether your malpractice case relates to one of the most common types of medical errors above or other errors, the underlying causes of these errors can typically be traced back to:

Communication Failures

Miscommunication among healthcare providers, or between providers and patients, can lead to numerous errors, including medication mishaps, surgical errors, and misdiagnoses. This can occur during handoffs between shifts or when information about patient allergies, current medications, or past medical history is not fully shared or understood. It can even involve poor handwriting, such as when prescribing medications.

Inadequate Information Flow

Failure to share and access all necessary patient information, such as test results, previous treatments, and medical history, can result in incorrect treatment decisions. This issue is particularly acute when care is fragmented across multiple providers or settings, as is often the case in the healthcare industry and why it’s a top contributor of common medical errors.

Human Factors

Fatigue, stress, and cognitive overload can impair clinical judgment and performance, leading to mistakes. Healthcare providers working long hours or juggling too many patients simultaneously are at a higher risk of making errors. Cognitive biases can also factor into improperly treating patients.

Patient-Related Issues

Patients not fully understanding their treatment plans, or medical professionals proceeding with treatments that have not been formally agreed upon by patient’s or their legal guardians, can contribute to adverse outcomes.

Technical Failures

Malfunctioning medical devices or equipment, or user errors in operating them, can cause patient injuries. This includes problems with surgical instruments, diagnostic equipment, and electronic health record systems.

Inadequate Policies or Procedures

Lack of or failure to follow the standardized policies, protocols, or safety practices that have been established for hospitals and other care facilities can lead to preventable errors. This includes issues with infection control practices, medication administration protocols, and surgical procedures.

System Failures

Organizational issues, such as inadequate staffing levels, insufficient resources, and poor management, can create environments conducive to medical errors. Systemic problems can also include lack of support for reporting and analyzing errors to prevent future occurrences.

Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in Oklahoma

Addressing and fixing the above causes of the most common types of medical errors requires a concentrated and multifaceted approach, which is why there’s a critical need for accountability within the healthcare system​​.
If you are thinking about filing a medical malpractice lawsuit to hold a doctor or facility accountable for a harm, be aware that there’s a two-year statute of limitations on these cases, so a lawsuit must be filed within that deadline. There’s also a substantial burden of proof for plaintiffs, which we can walk you through. With more than 30 years of experience handling medical malpractice claims, we have the knowledge and expertise you need to determine if you have a case. Contact us for a free evaluation.