Medical errors generally make the news only when they are particularly dramatic — the wrong leg is amputated, for example — or tragic — someone dies. But less sensational errors take place every day in numerous settings. Some errors happen in hospitals, some in doctors’ offices, some in pharmacies, and some in people’s homes, when, for example, two drugs are mixed up or a dose is forgotten.
With all of the steps involved in diabetes care, it is perhaps no surprise that about 80% of people with diabetes experience at least one error in their diabetes care over the course of any one year. Knowing about some of the most common sorts of errors in diabetes care can help you learn to avoid them.