Discuss financial implications of medical errors related to healthcare Essay

Discuss financial implications of medical errors related to healthcare management - Essay Example Besides, over a million people die every year as a direct result of medical errors. In addition to this, another 57,000 die due to the lack of quality in the hospitals. Medical errors, besides being cause of distress to patients as well as their relatives and raising ethical issues also amount to heavy financial implications on the hospitals. The costs which related to the medical errors are very high. Statistics show that this cost is in excess of 37.6 billion every year. On the other hand, there are also huge expenditures, which are being incurred in the long run as a result of medical errors. Though in many cases medical errors do not lead to the death of people, many entail in handicaps that will harshly impede the person’s skill to work and to carry on productive and vigorous life. Thus, on many occasions the medical errors result in personal loss to the patients taking treatment in hospitals. From the point of view of hospital management, such errors entail on compensation claims and they will have to spend huge sums on litigations. Medical errors can occur due to a variety of reasons. Sometimes these happen due to â€Å"communication problems as misspelled words or illegible handwriting, whereas surgical errors are often related to unclear or misinterpreted diagnostic images† (Medical Errors: Introdu ction and Definitions, 2011, para. 8). The study of healthcare financial management is both rewarding and necessary because the medical errors have implications for both personal and professional behavior. In the healthcare environment today, financial implications play a significant role in delivering treatment to the patients. When medical errors occur, it becomes the responsibility of the hospital to meet the treatment expenditures of the victim as well as they are further obliged to pay compensation and litigation expenses to claimants. The financial implications of medical errors, however, are focused on the overall difficulty for the