704 II Medical Errors- Patient Safety and Ethics

This course examines the clinical, human, and system-level factors that contribute to medical errors and their impact on patient safety. It focuses on how errors occur in complex healthcare environments, emphasizing breakdowns in communication, workflow, decision-making, and system design rather than isolated individual failure. Participants will analyze common sources of preventable harm, including medication errors, diagnostic delays, and failures in escalation of care, with attention to high-risk settings such as critical care and acute care environments.

The course integrates core patient safety principles with ethical decision-making, addressing professional responsibility, disclosure of errors, and the balance between accountability and system improvement. Concepts such as human factors engineering, safety culture, root cause analysis, and failure-to-rescue are explored in a clinically relevant context. Through applied examples, learners will strengthen their ability to recognize early warning signs, reduce risk, improve communication, and contribute to safer, more reliable patient care systems.