Close to 100,000 patients treated at a hospital die each year due to common medical errors. In addition, medical errors also cause increased medical bills, millions of injuries as well as longer recovery times. Many medical errors exist that you need to be aware of, but here is a list of the ten most common medial errors:

Abbreviation Errors
In the medical field, there are lots and lots of abbreviations for all different types of conditions, often caregivers make the mistake of misreading these abbreviations. In addition to other problems caused by this error, patients can be given the wrong medication or improper dosage.

Billing Errors
Some hospitals take the chance that patient do know what they should and should not be billed for and attempt to sneak in extra charges on the bill. They will use fancy medical terms to make ridiculous charges that only confuse the patient. If you do not fully understand each charge on your medical bill, call the billing department at the hospital and have them explain your bill to you in expanded detail.

Equipment Failure
Diagnostic tools and other medical equipment that is not functioning correctly may cause serious injury to the patient, or even death. Such errors can occur with anesthetic machines, heart defibrillators, x-ray machines and more.

Hospital Infections
According to reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the neonatal intensive care unit, the burn intensive care unit and the pediatric intensive care unit have the highest rate of infections and occur in an estimated 5% of all hospitalizations for acute care. These infections are nosocomial and are the cause of up to 70,000 deaths each year just in the United States alone.

Incorrect Diagnosis
An incorrect diagnosis, no matter the disease, can lead to poor treatment, or no treatment at all for the actual disease that continues to do harm to the patient. All tests have a chance of producing a false positive. If the doctor relies on just one test, a misdiagnosis of someone who is perfectly healthy may occur.

IV Errors
Research indicates that errors involving medications given intravenously, or through an IV, rank at the top of the list of common medical mistakes. Line problems and incorrect dosage occurs often. Thankfully, now a device is available that is able to prevent such errors. Make sure that the hospital you attend has one.

Medication Errors
Reports from the National Academies indicate that medication errors are one of the most common errors in the medical field. At least 1.5 million patients are harmed each year. The additional medical costs to treat such injuries, just in hospitals alone, adds up to $3.5 million each year.

Patient Falls
When a patient that has problems moving about on their own attempts to get around without help, a fall often occurs. Medication reactions, confusion, balance trouble, sedation and especially an increased patient to medical staff ratio often cause these falls.

Preventable Adverse Reaction To Drugs
Examples of adverse drug reactions, or ADRs, that could be prevented is drug-herbal, drug-diet and drug-drug interactions.

Wrong Site Surgery
Wrong site surgery can occur in several ways that include organ puncture, incorrect incision, unsanitary utensils, surgery on the incorrect organ or delayed/prolonged surgery. This error can happen in all types of surgery from cosmetic surgery to amputation, even during childbirth.

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