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Surgical specialists less likely to disclose medical errors

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, August 17, 2006

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Surgical specialists are less likely than medical specialists to explicitly tell a patient about a medical error, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers presented more than 2,500 physicians in the United States and Canada with one of four scenarios involving a medical error, and only 19% of surgical specialists said they would explicitly mention the error to patients, compared to 58% of medical specialists.

Researchers also asked physicians a series of questions about the scenario they received, including what information they would convey if they did disclose the error, how serious the error was, and how likely it was to result in a lawsuit. They found that physicians are more likely to report errors if the mistake is obvious to the patient.

Additional findings include the following:

• 63% of physicians would not provide specific information about preventing future errors
• 56% chose statements that mentioned the adverse event but not the error
• 42% would explicitly state that an error occurred
• 19% would not volunteer any information about the error's cause

Click here to read an abstract of the Archives of Internal Medicine study.

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