WITHDRAWN: Physician factors associated with medical errors in Norwegian primary care emergency services. Based on a case – control study with patient complaints as an outset.

Abstract

Background Patient safety incidents are reported as relatively common. To unravel the reasons for these incidents in primary care emergency units (PCEU), patient complaints have been used as an outset. Methods We included the PCEUs in ten major cities and rural parts of Norway, covering one third of the population. In the initial part of our study a case-control design was used to evaluate factors related to complaints. The controls where a random sample of three physicians from the same PCEU and time-period as the physician having evoked a complaint. The inclusion period was 18 months (September 1st 2015 till March 1st 2017). The physician characteristics were: gender, seniority, citizenship at authorization and specialty in general practice. Workload was defined as the magnitude of patient contacts. The physician identities and workload were extracted from the medical records from the fourteen-day period prior to the consultation that elicited the complaint. The other variables were obtained from the Norwegian physician position register. In the present study a total of 77 physicians were included in the complaint group and 217 in the random sample group. The assessments of the medical records were divided in three groups: medical error, inconclusive and no medical error. Associations between these groups, physician characteristics and workload, were tested by chi-square, Fisher’s exact and t-tests separately for the complaint and randomized group. The data were analyzed using SPSS. Results In the complaint group 53.2% of the medical records were assessed as being erroneous. In the random sample group this percentage was 3.2. The proportion inconclusive assessments was similar in both groups (29.9 and 27.6%). In the complaint group the percentages for no-error and inconclusive for the female physicians were 30.8 and 15.4; and for the male physicians 9.8 and 27.3, p=0.027. Conclusions In the complaint group male physicians had the lowest percentage no-error, and the highest percentage of inconclusive medical record for assessing medical errors, compared to their female colleagues. The Norwegian regulations for working in a PCEU may have modulated the impact of the other variables. Future research should focus on the underlying elements for these findings.

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Medical Error Rate in Iran: 2005-2019

“…101 Some studies have shown the prevalence of MEs in Western countries; indeed, in this regard, a study in Norway showed that 53% of medical records were assessed as featuring errors. 102 Also, about 27% of patients reported at least 1 error during cancer follow-up in Denmark. 103 Moreover, MEs were involved in 26% and 74% of court verdicts in Spain and Massachusetts, respectively.…”