45% of Specialists Report Recent Medical Error

The largest category of errors was found in technical errors during procedures (19%), of which 56% caused major injury or harm. Medication errors (14%) included dosage mistakes and giving medications to which a patient was allergic or that were contraindicated. Testing errors (10%) included physician errors (ordering incorrect tests, not reviewing tests, not acting on results) and lab errors (lost specimens, errors in labeling and interpretation of results). Another 10% of all errors were in surgical planning: mistakes in scheduling, failing to ensure that preoperative studies were complete, and judgment errors, such as undertaking surgery that was risky.

Other errors reported included equipment errors (9.4%, not available or improperly assembled), errors in postoperative care (8.5%), wrong site surgery (6%, wrong patient, wrong organ, or wrong side), drug errors during surgery (4%), and communication errors (4%). All the respondents were members of the American Academy of Otolaryngology. Younger doctors were more likely than doctors over 50 to report errors.

The survey was conducted by Dr. David Roberson, department of otolaryngology and communication disorders, Children's Hospital Boston (MA, USA; http://web1.tch.harvard.edu), and colleagues. They believe that the proportion of doctors encountering an error (45%) is an underestimate. "In the absence of a significant adverse event, most clinicians do not recognize (or admit) errors,” said Dr. Lucian Leape, of the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA, USA), in an accompanying editorial.




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