The Function of Disclosing Medical Errors: New Cultural Challenges for Physicians

Mendonça, Vítor Silva; Gallagher, Thomas H.; Oliveira, Reinaldo Ayer de

doi:10.1007/s10730-018-9362-7

Cited by 9 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Challenges and barriers of disclosing medical errors are not limited only to the fear of disclosing the event to the patients, but also include the repercussions of discussion with peers such as blame, embarrassment or even loss of reputation [19,20]. It also includes proper reporting to the institution, and the possibility of legal liability [14,[21][22][23] Given the importance of a physician's knowledge and willingness to report medical errors in improving healthcare standards and quality, King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in collaboration with the Salim El-Hoss Bioethics and Professionalism Program (SHBPP) at the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center (AUBMC) conducted several workshops, which aimed to coach physicians at KHCC on how, when and where to effectively disclose medical errors to patients and their families, especially in view of the recently enacted "Medical and Health Liability Law" (MHLL) in Jordan which was published by the government of Jordan and took effect on the 31 st of August, 2018 [24]. Article 5 of the MHLL illustrates that physicians are required to perform services subject to the requirements of the morals, accuracy, and loyalty of the profession and they must also be in line with the established scienti c standards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Mansour

Ammar

Al-Tabba

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Between the need for transparency in healthcare, widely promoted by patient’s safety campaigns, and the fear of negative consequences and malpractice threats, physicians face challenging decisions on whether or not disclosing medical errors to patients and families is a valid option. We aim to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of physicians in our center regarding medical error disclosure.Methods This is a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire study. The questionnaire was piloted and no major modifications were made. A day-long training workshop consisting of didactic lectures, short and long case scenarios with role playing and feedback from the instructors, were conducted. Physicians who attended these training workshops were invited to complete the questionnaire at the end of the training, and physicians who did not attend any training were sent a copy of the questionnaire to their offices to complete. To assure anonymity and transparency of responses, we did not query names or departments.Descriptive statistics were used to present demographics and KAP. The differences between response\s of physicians who received the training and those who did not were analyzed with t-test and descriptive statistics. The 0.05 level of significance was used as a cutoff measure for statistical significance. Results Eighty-eight physicians completed the questionnaire (55 attended training (62.50%), and 33 did not (37.50%)). Sixty Five percent of physicians were males and the mean number of years of experience was 16.5 years. Eighty-Seven percent (n=73) of physicians were more likely to report major harm, compared to minor harm or no harm. Physicians who attended the workshop were more knowledgeable of articles of Jordan’s Law on Medical and Health Liability (66.7% vs 45.5%, p-value = 0.017) and the Law was more likely to affect their decision on error disclosure (61.8% vs 36.4%, p-value= 0.024).Conclusion Formal training workshops on disclosing medical errors have the power to positively influence physicians’ KAP toward disclosing medical errors to patients and possibly promoting a culture of transparency in the health care system.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Mansour

Ammar

Al-Tabba

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fifty-six percent of participants reported medication errors as the most signi cant type of adverse events (AEs). This was followed by wrong diagnosis, infections, bedsores and falls reported by 21.3%, 21.3%, 16% and 8% of participants, respectively [4]. Other AEs reported in the study were errors of patient identi cation, transfusion errors, and medical errors that lead to patients' death.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Mansour

Ammar

Al-Tabba

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Between the need for transparency in healthcare widely promoted by patient’s safety campaigns and the fear of negative consequences and malpractice threats, physicians find themselves faced with challenging decisions on whether to disclose medical errors to patients and families or not. We aim to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of physicians in our center towards medical error disclosure.Methods This is a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire study. We piloted the questionnaire and no major modifications were made. A daylong training workshop consisting of didactic lectures, short and long case scenarios with role-playing and feedback from the instructors were conducted. Physicians who attended the training workshops were invited to complete the questionnaire at the end of the training and physicians who did not attend any training were sent a copy of the questionnaire to their offices to complete. To assure anonymity and transparency of responses, we did not query names or departments.Descriptive statistics were used to present demographics and KAP. The differences between response\s of physicians who received the training and those who did not were analyzed with t-test and descriptive statistics. The 0.05 level of significance was used as a cutoff measure for statistical significance. Results Eighty-eight physicians completed the questionnaire (55 attended training (62.50%), and 33 did not (37.50%)). 65.5% of physicians were males and mean years of experience was 16.5 years. 86.9% (n=73) of physicians were more likely to report major harm, compared to minor harm or no harm. Physicians who attended the workshop were more knowledgeable of articles of Jordan’s Law on Medical and Health Liability (66.7% vs 45.5%, p-value = 0.017) and the Law was more likely to affect their decision on error disclosure (61.8% vs 36.4%, p-value= 0.024).Conclusion Formal training workshops on disclosing medical errors can positively influence physicians’ KAP toward disclosing medical errors to patients and possibly promoting a culture of transparency in the health care system.

show abstract

“…In many other countries, such as Brazil, this practice is still little known or used, which reinforces the innovative character of the initiative of the hospital in this study in developing a disclosure process; truly a pioneer movement in the country. Nevertheless, the disclosure process in many countries needs to be better discussed and studied in order to think of implementation possibilities (Mendonca, et al , 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there has been little debate on error disclosure and its importance to physicians. Moreover, there are some other challenges to Brazilian Medicine, such as the error-free medical practice culture, the lack of resources for disclosure and the tendency to condemn physicians who made mistakes by considering them evil professionals (Giostri, 2002 ; Mendonca, Gallagher & Oliveira, 2018 ; Mendonca & Schmidt, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The debate on medical error has become more notorious due to the exponential increase in the number of victims in different countries. Furthermore, the advent of new medical technologies has increased the variety of the errors, which lead to discussions about the medical service provided to patients, since in Brazil and some other countries, medical training is known for the search for infallibility and for considering medical errors to be unacceptable (Mendonca, et al , 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Physicians’ attitudes regarding the disclosure of medical errors: A qualitative study

Mendonça¹,

Schmidt²

2020

Health Psych Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The experiences of physicians’ errors could affect their professional practice. The aim of study was to explore physicians’ experiences of medical errors and its consequences. This was a qualitative study in which ten Brazilian physicians were selected through purposive sampling. The data were collected via semistructured interviews and analyzed through principles derived of the phenomenological method. The interview topics were around how the error occurred in their practice, its process of disclosure and consequences of medical errors. Excessive workload and difficulty communicating among physicians are some of the factors that may increase the likelihood of medical error. Not looking for help after the error was a common attitude. This may be related to the difficulty for some physicians to acquire new practices after the error, even though physicians have shown that experiencing a medical error situation has a negative impact in their lives. To disclose training and institutional practices which contribute to the dissemination of conduct favorable to the improvement of medical practice.

show abstract

The Function of Disclosing Medical Errors: New Cultural Challenges for Physicians

Cited by 9 publications

References 13 publications

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Disclosure of Medical Errors: Physicians’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in an Oncology Center

Physicians’ attitudes regarding the disclosure of medical errors: A qualitative study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About