engleski

Health of the Health System : Pilot, Swiss cheese, and cash machine

There is hardly a topic as odious to doctors as the one about their faults. Such an opinion is a consequence of the prejudice that medical staff should be infallible and, more generally, a product of today’ s culture, which discourages admitting mistakes. This prejudice is built into modern health practitioners already in the medical school, where students are nourished by the belief: “ If I am diligent enough in studying and working, I will not commit a mistake ; have I made one, it would mean that I have not learned or worked diligently enough.” The one who acts makes mistakes. Making mistakes is human. Mistakes in medicine, although sometimes fatal, are simply unavoidable. Of course, there are bad apples among the doctors too, although their number is negligible. The majority of medical faults are faults of the system ; individual faults are rare. That is to say, a doctor might be the most experienced expert, doing the best in his power, and he or she might still commit a mistake.

health practitioners; mistakes

nije evidentirano