Improving Patient Safety with Telemedicine

Abstract

The patient safety and quality problem in health care are considerable. To err is human, but primum non nocere (first, do no harm) means work against the adverse events and work for good quality. The purpose of the chapter is to explore the potential role for patient safety of a telemedicine network organization with centralization and decentralization taken into consideration. Network organization is of importance for strengthening of professional communities and competence complementation. For the building of strong professional communities, some size can be necessary, and this can be promoted by centralization. In the telemedicine era, a new way of organizing can be network organization, combined with centralization and decentralization. Not to do anything with the significant patient safety and quality problem is fundamentally wrong and morally indefensible. To err is human, to continue to err is diabolic, and to forgive is divine.