They are called "never events" because, in theory, they should never happen. This term refers to surgical and medical errors that are so egregious they almost seem made up. Many Ohio residents have likely read the stories of doctors operating on the wrong patient, wrong body part or leaving a surgical tool inside a patient's body. While many hospitals have taken steps to minimize such medical errors, roughly 4,000 such events occur each year.

So-called never events are major medical errors that typically are obvious or difficult to ignore. Many other less obvious or harmful medical errors that adversely impact the health and wellbeing of patients go unreported. While some may wonder how this is possible, a major factor is a lack of accountability and reporting within the health care field.

Many hospitals, doctors and nurses are fearful of being sued or losing their medical license. As a result, many medical professionals fail to disclose medical mistakes to patients. What's more, many medical errors go completely undetected and unreported as few hospitals have systems in place that make the reporting of such errors easy.

Many other industries have established protocols to report when errors or mistakes occur. The aviation industry is a good example of an industry that has strict guidelines related to error reporting in an attempt to learn from such errors and prevent them from occurring in the future.

In order to reduce medical errors and improve overall patient safety, the health care industry would be wise to adopt similar standards when it comes to reporting medical errors.

Source: Tuscaloosa News, "People's Pharmacy: Health care is riskier than flying," Joe and Teresa Graedon, Jan. 31, 2013