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Errors, Medicine and the Law
 
 
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Errors, Medicine and the Law [Paperback]

Alan Merry , Alexander McCall Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 264 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press (16 Aug 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0521000882
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521000888
  • Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.4 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 315,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Alan Merry
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Review

'[A] superb book … Merry and McCall Smith are not simply out to protect doctors: their central thesis is that many 'negligent' incidents should not attract blame, but they also support reporting systems because 'there are too many medical accidents' … I do know some people who should be forced to read Errors, Medicine and the Law.' British Medical Journal

'It is written in exemplary English by a cardiac anaesthetist (A. Merry) and a professor of medical law (A. McCall Smith), and must surely be of interest to anyone practising at the 'sharp end' of medicine.' British Journal of Surgery

'Errors, Medicine and the Law is a most timely contribution to the enduring debate about how society should respond to accidents in general, and medical accidents in particular ... This is a highly readable, accessible text that should be read by all those who are interested in the compensation debate, and the field of tort law in particular.' Jane Wright, Web Journal of Current Legal Issues

'This is a book that will interest those who have concerns that errors occurring in medicine are too often equated with negligence … The major goal of the book is to seek a fundamental re-evaluation of the way in which we think about accidents and blame, and for this it must be applauded.' Journal of the Medical Protection Society

'Errors, Medicine and the Law is the latest contribution to eschew the individual blame mentality in favour of a systems analysis approach. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the topic under review, the authors, a cardiac anesthetist and a professor of medical law, draw from a wide range of literatures. As they remark, 'error events' are a global problem occurring in a number of different settings. The result is a book that will interest, amongst others, lawyers, medics, psychologists, and sociologists.' Medical Law Review

'The arguments raised in this excellent book are timely to all professionals working to protect and preserve the health of people.' Ergonomics

'Medical error is an important issue, and it won't go away … we can deal with it better if we understand the basic science. Errors, Medicine and the Law goes far beyond medicine and law, into the psychology of error, the sociology of conflict and even the moral philosophy of forgiveness. It's a good place to start.' acpNews

'… exceptionally illuminating … a book that every reflective tort lawyer ought to read.' The Cambridge Law Journal

'… a sympathetic and humanising account of medical error, which usefully redresses the pro-plaintiff tone of medical law literature of the past twenty years.' The Irish Jurist

Product Description

Untoward injuries are unacceptably common in medical treatment, at times with tragic consequences for patients. The phrases 'an epidemic of error' and 'the medical toll' have been coined to describe this problem of 'iatrogenic harm', which it has been suggested may have contributed to 98,000 deaths per year in the US. Some of these incidents are the result of negligence on the part of doctors, but more usually they are no more than inevitable concomitants of the complexity of modern healthcare. This book is fundamentally about distinguishing the former from the latter. Although medicine is used as the book's primary example, the points made apply equally to aviation, industrial activities, and many other fields of human endeavour. The book advocates a more informed alternative to the blaming culture which has increasingly come to dominate our response to accidents, whether in the medical field or elsewhere.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful Medico-Legal Reference, 11 Jun 2002
This review is from: Errors, Medicine and the Law (Paperback)
I bought this book after it was recomended by a tutor. It provides a wealth of useful information and references in all areas of medico-legal interest. Ammusing or thought provoking tales hold your concentration and it's straight forwards lay out and clear & concise language makes it invaluable as a litary reference for studies and reviews.
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Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Getting real about medical error, 18 April 2002
By C. S. Webster - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Errors, Medicine and the Law (Paperback)
When someone is hurt during medical treatment it is an understandable reaction to blame the doctor for the harm. However, the great majority of errors which occur in medicine are a simple consequence of conscientious doctors being fallible human beings just like the rest of us. Hospital systems are generally full of design faults which pre-dispose doctors to make mistakes. Blaming doctors for simply being human directs attention away from these design faults, reduces the chance that system improvements will be made, and makes it likely that the same error will repeat itself in the future - thus perpetuating patient harm. Human error cannot be avoided, but patient harm can, through better systems and procedures. Genuinely negligent acts do occur in medicine, but it is important that these are distinguished from the inevitable human errors of clinicians doing their best. This is a distinction which is also required in law to ensure fairness in both the prosecution of negligent doctors and the compensation of harmed patients. This book goes several steps beyond the Institute of Medicine Report ("To Err is Human") in identifying the mechanisms and nature of error within health care and in its detailed discussion of the intricacies of culpability, blame, violation, error, legal fairness, and patient safety.
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