[Reducing medical error and improving patient safety]

Within the last years in the public discussion medical error became a new issue. Several studies have addressed problems in the delivery of medical services, which create a breakdown of trust in doctors and the health care system. One of the reasons may be a broader and faster (global) information network system together with media which search extensively for mistakes and problems, despite the fact that diagnostic and therapeutic methods, skills and accuracy could be improved. Nevertheless, the medical system has to address these challenges in order to definitively reduce medical errors and improve patient safety. In contrast to the discussion about quality assurance and management systems in health care, medical errors and patient safety do not have the smell of expensive or not really necessary products, but they are urgent and very important. So the topics "medical error" and "patient safety" have in fact the potential to enhance quality management systems (QMS), which are an accepted technology to solve these problems.