To Promote Patient Safety, Don’t Criminalize Medical Errors

BOSTON—Criminalizing unintended errors during anesthesia administration could drive up malpractice costs and cause clinicians to flee the profession. The better approach could be to build a culture of safety that minimizes the chance for medical and medication error, according to a presentation at the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation’s (APSF’s) 2024 Stoelting Conference.

Medical error is the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan