15 Errors Occur During Typical Operations, 24 Percent of Errors due to Equipment Failure

A new study shows that one in four errors caused during surgical procedures are the fault of failing technology.

In fact, the study confirms that about 15 errors typically occur during operations, and equipment failure could be due to about 24 percent of those errors.

Results show that equipment problems can create substantial operating problems when working in the medical field. However, as doctors depend heavily on technology for help, this can become quite a problem during surgeries. And if the technology falls through during a surgical procedure, the training may not always support what to do without it.

"There is clear benefit in the use of preoperative checklist-based systems, by which a large proportion of equipment-related error and overall error can be reduced," the researchers said, according to the study.

Live Science recommends following the equipment checks before going along with routine practice included in the current World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist.

To get a more in-depth look at the problem, study researchers categorized equipment problems into three groups: a lack of availability of needed equipment accounted for 37 percent of equipment failures; problems with equipment configuration and settings occurred in 44 percent of cases and device malfunctioning was responsible for 33 percent of cases.

"The increasing use of technology in all surgical specialties may also increase the complexity of the surgical process, and may represent an increasing propensity to error from equipment failure," the researchers wrote, according to the study.

More information regarding the study can be found in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.