Resumen

RAMOS DOMINGUEZ, Benito Narey. Quality of health care: Medical error and the patient safety. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2005, vol.31, n.3. ISSN 0864-3466.

The objective of this paper is to stimulate the interest for timely diagnosis and prevention of medical errors. To this end, a national and international literature review together with interviews with professors who know a lot about this topic were made. The increasing concern for medical error (ME) all over the world due to the number of adverse events it generates is expressed; for some authors, ME represents the 8th general cause of death and the 6th cause of in-hospital mortality. The history, definition, classification, epidemiology, causative factors and ways of facing the problems were analyzed. It is stated that it is possible and necessary to prevent ME using a broad scientific approach that allows controlling it or reducing it so as to increase the quality of medical care and the patient safety

Palabras clave : Medical error; malpractice; infringement; imprudence; adverse events; patient safety.

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