Error Science, Risk Assessment, and Disclosures, Essay Example

There are three different concepts that are important to understand for this lesson error science, risk assessment, and disclosures. In order to promote clinical safety, these concepts will be looked at one-by-one in greater depth.

Error science is the discipline at looking at how errors occur in the clinical setting. There are two main ways to think about errors: 1) systematic errors; 2) random errors. Systematic errors are errors that happen due to bias or structural errors in how things are done. That is, these are errors that exist in a clinical environment due to how processes are structured or how things are carried out on a daily basis. The other type of errors is random error. Random error in a clinical environment is caused by either an unanticipated error or, an error in how a process is expected to be done but is not completed according to the anticipated result. Error science is important in understanding how the clinical environment can be improved.

The second concept is risk assessment. Risk assessment is important for a number of reasons, foremost because it sets up the appropriate infrastructure for understanding errors in the clinical setting. That is, risk assessment is a key tool that can be used not only to preemptively deal with risks that emerge in the operational environment and also when those risks actually appear. Risk assessment can be done at the individual or population level for the clinical environment.

The final concept is that of disclosure. Disclosure is an important concept in the realm of clinical management. Disclosure refers to the disclosure of information and risks that pervade the clinical environment. Although disclosure must mix with HIPAA regulations, it is important to get the right balance between information disclosure and the privacy needed to achieve it. Overall, these three concepts are important in understanding how to ensure safety in clinical environments.