Consider, says one doctor and writer on medical malpractice issues, that a medication error can often be traced to any number of points within the process of actually ordering and having a drug administered to a patient.

The medication is first ordered. It must then be transcribed, following which it is dispensed. In a patient setting, the medication must then be delivered and administered to the patient.

There is the opportunity for medical error to creep in at any of these points. The wrong drug might be ordered or dispensed. It could be delivered to the wrong patient. It could be given at an inappropriate dose level.

The point sought to be made by Kevin Pho, a primary care doctor and writer on such matters, is that many acts of malpractice and medical error owe to systemic glitches -- "system-wide procedural failures" -- and not necessarily to a discrete act or omission on the part of a single physician.

When that happens, doctors -- representing the face and focal point of treatment -- need to step forward and explain that to patients.

Moreover, they need to apologize.

Pho argues that doing so can actually lead to fewer mistakes and a vastly improved environment for physician-patient exchange and communication.

When things go wrong, Pho notes, doctors and hospitals often clam up, run to their insurers and teams of attorneys and fail to communicate at all with the party who has been harmed.

That has never been right, Pho says. Better communication, he maintains, always leads to better results.

"If errors are made," he says, "doctors should apologize and work with the patient and, when necessary, their lawyer, to find a compromise."

Source: USA TODAY, "Column: How doctors can reduce medical errors, lawsuits" Jan. 18, 2012