Patients who have been subject to medical errors may be left with serious and permanent injuries. While some medical errors are obvious and immediately reported while a patient is still admitted at a hospital or medical clinic, others aren't apparent until a patient has been discharged.

Currently, for the majority of patients reporting a medical error is often a confusing and intimidating process. Many patients, therefore, fail to report medical errors which not only directly harms them, but also potentially future patients.

According to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, an estimated 15,000 Medicare patients alone are impacted by some type of medical error each month. A major problem, however, is that there is currently no process or method to formally track or follow-up when medical errors are reported.

Lack of a central system to track medical errors not only harms individual patients, but also serves to perpetuate the problem as medical facilities and personnel are not able to make improvements or adjustments if they aren't aware problems exist. This stance has lead many states, including Ohio, to take steps to make the process of reporting medical errors easier.

In an effort to develop an easier and more effective method for patients to report medical errors, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has established a program for patients to report medical errors and discuss how they were directly impacted.

In order to reduce the number of patients that are adversely impacted by medical errors, it's critical that the health care industry improve reporting methods. This means establishing methods to make it easier for all patients to both detect and report medical errors.

Source: The Huffington Post, "Why Don't Patients Report Medical Errors?," Marshall Allen, Sept. 25, 2012