Addressing the Medical Errors in the Re-Organized Healthcare in Indonesia

Medical errors have emerged as an important problem in terms of negative outcomes for patients that can be associated with Healthcare Workers' behaviour. This study aimed to measure the awareness of the main medical issues in the medical personnel of the Ciracas General Hospital, recently opened after the reorganization and enlargement of an existing Primary Healthcare Outpatients Center.

A qualitative research (interviews, focus group discussions and direct observations) was conducted on the most frequent errors occurring in daily practice and on the main causes of these errors.

The main errors identified by the questioned staff are wrong medications and wrong processes in drug administration, demonstrating the lack of awareness among the staff of the many other causes of medical errors and, consequently, the absence of corrective interventions. There are nine types of errors that the medical staff failed to recognize as medical errors. They feel and refer that they had never heard, seen, or experienced any of the nine medical errors in the inpatient units.

The majority of the medical staff have poor knowledge about medical errors. It is essential to foster the growth of patient safety, eliminating the "blaming" culture in order to increase the quality of this institution.