Disclosure of medical errors

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate medical students' perceptions and intentions regarding patient safety during clinical clerkships. METHODS: Cross-sectional study administered in face-to-face interviews using modified the Medical Student Safety Attitudes and Professionalism Survey (MSSAPS) from three colleges of medicine in Korea. We assessed medical students' perceptions of the cultures ('safety', 'teamwork', and 'error disclosure'), 'behavioural intentions' concerning patient safety issues and 'overall patient safety'...

Despite the prevalence of medical errors in pediatrics, little research examines stakeholder perspectives on the disclosure of adverse events, particularly in the case of children's own perspectives. Stakeholder perspectives, however, are integral to informing processes for pediatric disclosure. Building on a systematic review of the literature, this article presents findings from a series of focus groups with key pediatric stakeholders where perspectives were sought on the disclosure of medical errors. Focus groups were conducted with three stakeholder groups...

OBJECTIVES: In undergraduate medical education, the topics of errors in medicine and patient safety are under-represented. The aim of this study was to explore undergraduate medical students' behavioural intentions when confronted with an error. DESIGN: A qualitative case vignette survey was conducted including one of six randomly distributed case scenarios in which a hypothetical but realistic medical error occurred. The six scenarios differed regarding (1) who caused the error, (2) the presence of witnesses and (3) the consequences of the error for the patient...

Incident learning is a key component for maintaining safety and quality in healthcare. Its use is well-established and supported by professional society recommendations, regulations and accreditation, and objective evidence. There is an active interest in incident learning systems (ILS) in radiation oncology, with over forty publications since 2010. This article is intended as a comprehensive topic review of ILS in radiation oncology, including: history and summary of existing literature, nomenclature and categorization schemas, operational aspects of ILS at the institutional level including event handling and root-cause analysis, and national and international ILS for shared learning...

Introduction: Emergency Medicine (EM) is a unique clinical learning environment. The American College of Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Review Pathways to Excellence calls for "hands-on training" of disclosure of medical error (DME) during residency. Training and practicing key elements of DME using standardized patients (SP) may enhance preparedness among EM residents in performing this crucial skill in a clinical setting. Methods: This training was developed to improve resident preparedness in DME in the clinical setting...

Harmful error is an infrequent but serious challenge in the pathology laboratory. Regulatory bodies and advocacy groups have mandated and encouraged disclosure of error to patients. Many pathologists are interested in participating in disclosure of harmful error but are ill-equipped to do so. This review of the literature with recommendations examines the current state of the patient safety movement and error disclosure as it pertains to pathology and provides a practical and explicit guide for pathologists for who, when, and how to disclose harmful pathology error to patients...

INTRODUCTION: Although error disclosure is critical in promoting safety and patient-centered care, physicians are inconsistently trained in its practice, and few objective methods to assess competence exist. We used an immersive simulation scenario to determine whether providers with varying levels of clinical experience adhere to the disclosure safe practice guidelines when exposed to a serious adverse event simulation scenario. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study with medical students, junior emergency medicine (EM) residents (PGY 1-2), senior EM residents (PGY 3-4), and attending EM physicians participating in a simulated case in which a scripted medication overdose resulted in an adverse event...

Data drive modern medicine. And our tools to analyze those data are growing ever more powerful. As health data are collected in greater and greater amounts, sophisticated algorithms based on those data can drive medical innovation, improve the process of care, and increase efficiency. Those algorithms, however, vary widely in quality. Some are accurate and powerful, while others may be riddled with errors or based on faulty science. When an opaque algorithm recommends an insulin dose to a diabetic patient, how do we know that dose is correct? Patients, providers, and insurers face substantial difficulties in identifying high-quality algorithms; they lack both expertise and proprietary information...

Since the release of the report of the Institute of Medicine on medical errors and patient safety in November 1999, health policy makers and health care leaders in several nations have sought solutions that will improve the safety of health care. This attention to patient safety has highlighted the importance of a learning approach and a systems approach to quality measurement and improvement. Balanced with the need for public disclosure of performance, confidential reporting with feedback is one of the prime ways that nations such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have approached this challenge...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a national-level description of the current use of simulation activities in physician assistant (PA) education and to assess the degree to which the use of simulation varies by PA program size and institutional type. METHODS: An electronic survey on medical simulation was sent to 177 PA program directors or to a designated simulation activities coordinator, using the directory on the Physician Assistant Education Association website...

Objective: To determine the knowledge of patient safety among postgraduate residents (PGR) and nurses in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This casual comparative study was conducted among the postgraduate residents and nurses working at The Children's Hospital Lahore in the month of July, August 2017. Both PGR and nurses were asked to complete APSQ-IV questionnaire about patient safety on 7 point Likert scale. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and t-test was used to compare the mean score between two groups...

BACKGROUND : Faculty members need to assess resident performance using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones. OBJECTIVE : In this randomized study we used an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) around the disclosure of an adverse event to determine whether use of a checklist improved the quality of milestone assessments by faculty. METHODS : In 2013, a total of 20 anesthesiology faculty members from 3 institutions were randomized to 2 groups to assess 5 videos of trainees demonstrating advancing levels of competency on the OSCE...

Importance: Dissatisfaction with medical malpractice litigation has stimulated interest by health care organizations in developing alternatives to meet patients' needs after medical injury. In communication-and-resolution programs (CRPs), hospitals and liability insurers communicate with patients about adverse events, use investigation findings to improve patient safety, and offer compensation when substandard care caused harm. Despite increasing interest in this approach, little is known about patients' and family members' experiences with CRPs...

Errors are inherent in medicine due to the imperfectness of human nature. Health care providers may have a difficult time accepting their fallibility, acknowledging mistakes, and disclosing errors. Fear of litigation, shame, blame, and concern about reputation are just some of the barriers preventing physicians from being more candid with their patients, despite the supporting body of evidence that patients cite poor communication and lack of transparency as primary drivers to file a lawsuit in the wake of a medical complication...

In the course of fulfilling their statutory role, physicians performing medicolegal investigations may recognize clinical colleagues' medical errors. If the error is found to have led directly to the patient's death (missed diagnosis or incorrect diagnosis, for example), then the forensic pathologist has a professional responsibility to include the information in the autopsy report and make sure that the family is appropriately informed. When the error is significant but did not lead directly to the patient's demise, ethical questions may arise regarding the obligations of the medical examiner to disclose the error to the clinicians or to the family...

BACKGROUND: Medication errors are common among nursing students. Nonetheless, these errors are often underreported. OBJECTIVES: To examine factors related to nursing students' intention to report medication errors, using the Theory of Planned Behavior, and to examine whether the theory is useful in predicting students' intention to report errors. DESIGN: This study has a descriptive cross-sectional design. SETTINGS: Study population was recruited in a university and a large nursing school in central and northern Israel...

OBJECTIVE: To provide ICU clinicians with evidence-based guidance on safe medication use practices for the critically ill. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science for relevant material to December 2015. STUDY SELECTION: Based on three key components: 1) environment and patients, 2) the medication use process, and 3) the patient safety surveillance system...

BACKGROUND: Disclosing medical errors is considered necessary by patients, ethicists, and health care professionals. Literature insists on the framing of this disclosure and describes the apology as appropriate and necessary. However, this policy seems difficult to put into practice. Few works have explored the function and meaning of the apology. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the role ascribed to apology in communication between healthcare professionals and patients when disclosing a medical error, and to discuss these findings using a linguistic and philosophical perspective...

OBJECTIVES: Surgery milestones from The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education have encouraged a focus on training and assessment of residents' nontechnical skills, including communication. We describe our 2-year experience implementing a simulation-based curriculum, results of annual communication performance assessments, and resident evaluations. DESIGN: Eight quarterly modules were conducted on various communication topics. Former patient volunteers served as simulation participants (SP) who completed annual assessments using the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT)...

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to determine specialist physicians' attitudes and practices regarding disclosure of pre-referral errors. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Physicians are encouraged to disclose their own errors to patients. However, no clear professional norms exist regarding disclosure when physicians discover errors in diagnosis or treatment that occurred at other institutions before referral. METHODS: We conducted semistructured interviews of cancer specialists from 2 National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers...