When medical or surgical treatment causes a new illness or injury, the result is considered to be iatrogenic. If you or your child are going for medical care, one of your worst fears may be that something could go wrong as a result of the treatment. An iatrogenic event can either complicate your existing medical condition or cause health issues unrelated to the illness you sought treatment for in the first place.
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These types of situations are rarely intentional, though medical providers are human and mistakes can be made. While you can’t eliminate the risk of an iatrogenic event, there are things you can do to reduce your risk.
Examples of Iatrogenic Events
“Iatrogenic” comes from the Greek language. “Iatros” meansdoctoror healer and “gennan” means “as a result.” Therefore, the word literally means “as a result of a doctor.”
A few examples of iatrogenic events include:
Differing Perspectives
As a patient or a parent of a patient, you would be concerned with knowing whether you would not have gotten sick or hurt had you not interfaced with the healthcare system. Your priorities are to know how your short-term and long-term outcomes.
Your healthcare provider, nurses, and therapists are focused on taking precautions to avoid a medical error, which would be considered an iatrogenic event. These mistakes are never intended, of course, but they are no less harmful to the patient. At the same time, some recommended treatments are known to have the potential for adverse effects, and your healthcare team would weigh the pros and cons of these treatments with you, and alert you to the risks.
Hospitals are concerned with preventing iatrogenic events, but they tend to look at the bigger picture, identifying trends and areas to work on for system-wide improvement.
And the legal and government systems are generally more concerned with accurately defining what constitutes an iatrogenic event.
How Often They Occur
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “on any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection.” But overall numbers of all types of iatrogenic events are difficult to nail down.
There are a number of reasons for this:
What You Can Do to Prevent Iatrogenic Events
As a patient or a parent, there are a few steps you can take to prevent iatrogenic events from happening to you or your loved ones:
A Word from Verywell
Reducing iatrogenic events is an important goal for any healthcare system or government because it prevents illness, pain, discomfort, and even death. When policies and funding are directed towards a collaborative and productive healthcare environment to prevent medical errors, there can be very good outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Antoniadis G, Kretschmer T, Pedro MT, König RW, Heinen CP, Richter HP.Iatrogenic nerve injuries: prevalence, diagnosis and treatment.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014;111(16):273-279. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2014.0273Additional ReadingCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare-Associated Infections,HAI Data and Statistics.King HB, Kesling K, Birk C, et al,Leveraging the Partnership for Patients' Initiative to Improve Patient Safety and Quality Within the Military Health System.Mil Med. 2017 Mar;182(3):e1612-e1619. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00077.Thiyagarajan D, Jeanmonod R.Iatrogenic Splenic Laceration Presenting As Syncope.Case Rep Emerg Med. 2018 Jun 3;2018:7639527. doi: 10.1155/2018/7639527. eCollection 2018.Vogel L.Abusive Patients: Is It Time for Accountability?CMAJ. 2016 Aug 9;188(11):E241-2. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5266. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
1 Source
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Antoniadis G, Kretschmer T, Pedro MT, König RW, Heinen CP, Richter HP.Iatrogenic nerve injuries: prevalence, diagnosis and treatment.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014;111(16):273-279. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2014.0273Additional ReadingCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare-Associated Infections,HAI Data and Statistics.King HB, Kesling K, Birk C, et al,Leveraging the Partnership for Patients' Initiative to Improve Patient Safety and Quality Within the Military Health System.Mil Med. 2017 Mar;182(3):e1612-e1619. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00077.Thiyagarajan D, Jeanmonod R.Iatrogenic Splenic Laceration Presenting As Syncope.Case Rep Emerg Med. 2018 Jun 3;2018:7639527. doi: 10.1155/2018/7639527. eCollection 2018.Vogel L.Abusive Patients: Is It Time for Accountability?CMAJ. 2016 Aug 9;188(11):E241-2. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5266. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Antoniadis G, Kretschmer T, Pedro MT, König RW, Heinen CP, Richter HP.Iatrogenic nerve injuries: prevalence, diagnosis and treatment.Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014;111(16):273-279. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2014.0273
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare-Associated Infections,HAI Data and Statistics.King HB, Kesling K, Birk C, et al,Leveraging the Partnership for Patients' Initiative to Improve Patient Safety and Quality Within the Military Health System.Mil Med. 2017 Mar;182(3):e1612-e1619. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00077.Thiyagarajan D, Jeanmonod R.Iatrogenic Splenic Laceration Presenting As Syncope.Case Rep Emerg Med. 2018 Jun 3;2018:7639527. doi: 10.1155/2018/7639527. eCollection 2018.Vogel L.Abusive Patients: Is It Time for Accountability?CMAJ. 2016 Aug 9;188(11):E241-2. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5266. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Healthcare-Associated Infections,HAI Data and Statistics.
King HB, Kesling K, Birk C, et al,Leveraging the Partnership for Patients' Initiative to Improve Patient Safety and Quality Within the Military Health System.Mil Med. 2017 Mar;182(3):e1612-e1619. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00077.
Thiyagarajan D, Jeanmonod R.Iatrogenic Splenic Laceration Presenting As Syncope.Case Rep Emerg Med. 2018 Jun 3;2018:7639527. doi: 10.1155/2018/7639527. eCollection 2018.
Vogel L.Abusive Patients: Is It Time for Accountability?CMAJ. 2016 Aug 9;188(11):E241-2. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5266. Epub 2016 Jun 20.
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