Near misses are also related to medical errors:

• Near misses are medical events that avert unwanted consequences.
• Someone or something identifies and corrects harmful influences before they cause adverse events.
• The medical community sometimes calls near misses “close calls.”

For example, a transfusion is stopped when the nurse discovers that the identification number on a unit of blood does not match the unit number on the requisition. This is a near miss for the patient receiving a transfusion of incompatible blood.

Near misses often provide important insight into new ways of preventing medical errors. In this case, a flaw in Blood Bank cross-checking systems is discovered so it can be prevented from causing a medical error.