Patient Safety in Internal Medicine

Abstract

Hospital Internal Medicine (IM) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of diseases, providing the comprehensive care in the office and in the hospital, managing both common and complex illnesses of adolescents, adults, and the elderly. IM is a key ward for Health National Services. In Italy, for example, about 17.3% of acute patients are discharged from the IM departments. After the epidemiological transition to chronic/degenerative diseases, patients admitted to hospital are often poly-pathological and so requiring a global approach as in IM. As such transition was not associated—with rare exceptions—to hospital re-organization of beds and workforce, IM wards are often overcrowded, burdened by off-wards patients and subjected to high turnover and discharge pressure. All these factors contribute to amplify some traditional clinical risks for patients and health operators. The aim of our review is to describe several potential errors and their prevention strategies, which should be implemented by physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals working in IM wards.

Definitions and Measurements for Atypical Presentations at Risk for Diagnostic Errors in Internal Medicine: Protocol for a Scoping Review

“…According to a recent report, approximately 0.8 million people may become permanently disabled or die annually due to diagnostic errors in the United States [ 2 ]. While diagnostic errors can occur across care settings, internal medicine is one of the highest-risk care settings for diagnostic errors [ 3 , 4 ]. Internal medicine physicians, as well as surgery and emergency medicine physicians, also frequently confront malpractice claims related to diagnostic errors [ 5 , 6 ].…”