Errors, incidents & accidents in anaesthesia

This review discusses the psychology of human error in the context of anesthesia. The authors provide definitions of, and describe the relationships between, errors, incidents, and accidents while drawing examples from the Australian Incident Monitoring Study. They explore a classification system for errors, including discussion of relevant taxonomic forms of ”active” errors (opens in new tab) and contributing factors to ”latent” errors (opens in new tab). The discussion continues with strategic suggestions to both reduce and manage errors, which entail adequate collection, organization, and analysis of reported and recorded events. The authors also advocate for systematic understanding of errors as catalysts for future prevention efforts.