Gawande, excerpt from ?When Doctors Make Mistakes?

Discussion questions: Gawande, from "When Doctors Make Mistakes" (2002)

Note: if you have time, the whole essay is pretty interesting!

1. On pages 64-70, Gawande gives a concise account of how the field of anesthesiology went about drastically reducing error. Which strategies discussed here seem most groundbreaking? Which could be carried into other fields of medicine?

2. Right before our excerpt, Gawande writes that "not only do all human beings err, but they err frequently and in predictable, patterned ways" (63)? How does our excerpt demonstrate that error is often predictable and patterned? How many of the changes made by the American Society of Anesthesiology relate to predictable error?

3. If you have time to read the whole essay: Why does Gawande believe that neither malpractice suits nor Morbidity and Mortality Conference nor the diligence of individual practitioners is going to solve medical error? How should patients respond to the fact that medical error is inevitable?