Medical errors in reproductive health care

Abstract

Medical errors, a much publicized problem in recent years, are believed to be a common occurrence in
the reproductive health care. These errors occur not only in hospitals but in other health care settings, such
as physicians’ offices, nursing homes, pharmacies, urgent care centers, and care delivered in the home.
Unfortunately, very little data exist on the extent of this problem in Thailand. One problem in assessing the
frequency of errors is that we are deeply immersed in a blame culture, so it is hard to persuade people to report
them. Many errors do not cause harm, but in many ways these are as important as those that do. They indicate
a breakdown in the system or a wrong decision. If we are to learn from mistakes then we need to know about as
many as possible so that corrective action can be taken.