Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Health/Wellness. No matter what arena it is, there will always be some element of human error. When you’re in a healthcare business, errors can be particularly dangerous. As such its important to figure out how to minimize errors in your healthcare business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Human Error In Healthcare Businesses: What Are The Solutions?
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While human error is by no means limited to healthcare businesses only – every industry has to battle the issue – it could be argued that human error is particularly costly when it comes to medicine. Medical staff are highly-trained, dedicated, and expert individuals, but everyone is human, and – to borrow a famous quote – to err is one of the most human of traits.
For years, owners of all healthcare-related businesses – ranging from private clinics to pharmacies to research labs – just had to accept that human error was inevitable, and to try to limit the damage when it occurred. However, modern medicine is very different indeed, and if you own a pharmacy or medical practice, you’re sure to be delighted by such a development.
Understanding the reasons for human error
When anyone makes a mistake, most of us are trained just to accept it, telling ourselves that these things happen. This is a fairly reasonable response, and there is no benefit to seeing a single error as a reflection of an individual’s overall capabilities, it is perhaps overlooking a key issue: well-being.
Simply put, errors are more likely if someone is not at their best. If they are tired, stressed, anxious, or feeling physically unwell, then an individual is more likely to make mistakes. Over recent years, a societal trend has emerged acknowledging that while some errors will always happen, many more are preventable. You might need to look at increasing your staff levels to reduce pressure or hire more experienced staff who can better handle the complex challenges facing your business. List vacancies on niche sites such as the allied health jobs board for the best applications.
In the course of running your medical business, embracing the above approach can be hugely beneficial. If you focus on ensuring your staff are at their best by managing their schedule, encouraging good employee health practices, and encouraging staff to approach you if they feel unwell or off their game, you stand an excellent chance of reducing human errors that may otherwise have caused huge problems.
The introduction of tech
An understanding of the reasons people make errors is important, but in terms of reducing human error in medical businesses, nothing is quite so efficient as automation. Machines and technology are unencumbered by issues such as stress and overwork, and are thus able to perform tasks with greater accuracy and consistency than their human counterparts.
There are few areas of medicine that are not benefiting from automated interventions. From the well-known benefits of devices that facilitate pharmacy automation and analysis of test results to futuristic ideas such as robotic surgery, automation is changing medicine for the better.
Due to the incredible abilities offered by modern technological advances such as those described above, human error is no longer a factor that just has to be accepted. By investing in tech, you can ensure that your staff have more time to spend interacting with patients, while automated technologies work hard in the background to produce excellent, almost entirely error-free results.
In conclusion
As the above demonstrates, owners of any kind of medical business are now able to better manage human error than at any other point in history. By combining a focus on employee health and well-being with automated technologies, you can embrace a new, exciting future that significantly improves the working life of your staff, reduces overall errors, and ultimately boosts your business’ chances of success.
