The epidemiology of medical errors: a review of the literature

Student Nurses' Assessment of Medical Errors

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of nursing students' assessment of cases of medical error.

METHOD

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 145 nursing students in İzmir, Turkey. The epidemiology of the medical errors that the students witnessed during clinical practice was examined. Then, the success of the students in using the Text-Based Medical Error cases tool developed by the researchers was examined.

RESULTS

Of the students, 24.1% had witnessed medical errors during clinical practice. The percentage of students successfully analyzing cases of medical errors related to patient identification, falling, medication administration, blood transfusions, health-care-associated infections, and pressure ulcers were 51.72%, 7.59%, 17.24%, 8.28%, 45.52%, and 56.55%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The students' ability to evaluate cases of medical error needs improvement.

Retrospective analysis of iatrogenic diseases in cattle requiring admission to a veterinary hospital

Iatrogenic diseases in veterinary medicine are often related to malpractice or lack of skill. For this retrospective study, 4262 clinical records of cattle admitted to the veterinary teaching hospital of the University of Milan between 2005 and 2017 were analysed, and 121 cases (2.8 per cent), referred for an iatrogenic-related disease, were selected. The findings showed that iatrogenic diseases were more often caused by farmers (92.6per cent) than by bovine practitioners (7.4 per cent). Iatrogenic diseases were caused mainly by the improper administration of drugs (43.0 per cent), forced extraction during calving (19.8 per cent), forced milk or colostrum feeding, which was often performed by awkward administration using a nipple bottle (14.9 per cent) or by oral oesophageal tubing (15.7 per cent). Moreover, farmers often performed medical, nursing and zootechnical procedures without adequate training. The role of the practitioner is fundamental in farmer education. Clinicians, especially in some professional branches such as neonatology, should not delegate medical procedures to untrained farmers. Effective tutoring and good communication with farmers play a key role in dairy herd health and consequently in public health. This then can lead to a decrease in improper drug administration, the prevention of antibiotic resistance and the reduction of treatment costs.

Diagnostic Errors in Tuberculous Patients: A Multicenter Study from a Developing Country

Although there is still much to learn about the types of errors committed in health care and why they occur, enough is known today to recognize that a serious concern exists for patients. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is frequently subject to diagnostic errors. Missed or delayed diagnosis of TB can affect patients and community adversely. Our aim in the present study was at evaluating the type of diagnostic errors in TB patients from symptom onset to diagnosis. This was a multicenter cross-sectional study conducted in three university hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. We showed a long delay in diagnosing TB that is mostly related to the time from first medical visit to diagnosis. Errors in the diagnostic process were identified in 97.5% of patients. The most common type of error in diagnosing TB was failure in hypothesis generation (72%), followed by history taking and physical examination. In conclusion, it seems likely that efforts to improve public awareness of and health literacy for TB, to coordinate the referral and follow-up systems of patients, and to improve physicians' skills in history taking and physical examination and clinical reasoning will result in reduced delay in diagnosis of TB and, perhaps, improved patient safety and community health.

[Assessment of the severity of postoperative complications from the patient and doctor perspective]

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study compares doctors' and patients' assessments of the severity of postoperative complications reported by patients. Within the context of quality assurance and patient safety, the study aims to contribute to developing instruments to include patients' views for measuring postoperative complications.

METHODS

In a questionnaire development study 474 patients who had undergone different kinds of surgery were given a questionnaire and asked whether postoperative complications occurred, and if so, to describe these complications in free text and assesses their severity as "slight, temporary" or "extensive". In an additional study, the patients' written descriptions of their complications were presented independently to two doctors (general practitioner [GP], orthopaedic surgeon) who were asked to assess the severity from their point of view. The physicians were not aware of the patients' or the other physician's assessments.

RESULTS

23.5 % of the patients participating in the survey reported postoperative complications in the questionnaire. Feedback from 80 of these patients included sufficient information for data analysis concerning the study's aim, including the description of their complication in free text. 47 (58.7 %) of these patients assessed their postoperative complications as being "slight, temporary", 33 (41.3 %) as being "extensive". The doctors, on the other hand, assessed the severity of the complications described by the patients much less often as "extensive" (GP: 20.0 %, orthopaedic surgeon: 11.3 %). In only 4 (12.0 %) of the 33 cases where the patient chose "extensive" both doctors also chose the assessment item "extensive". In 10 cases (30.3 %), one doctor's "extensive" assessment matched the patient's assessment, and in 19 cases (57.6 %) the patients but none of the doctors assessed the complications as being "extensive". There was a higher correlation between the GP's and the patients' assessments than between the orthopaedic surgeon's and the patients' ratings. Examples of patients' descriptions of their postoperative complications in free text as well as the corresponding assessments of patients and doctors are presented.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients' views and assessments of postoperative complications are different from doctors' views. Adequate instruments for measuring the occurrence and severity of postoperative complications should be developed bringing the patients' perspectives into the doctors' assessments. Also, it might be useful to include questions addressing information received pre- and postoperatively about the expected postoperative course as well as communication with patients in the case of complications.

The ability of triggers to retrospectively predict potentially preventable adverse events in a sample of deceased patients

Several trigger systems have been developed to screen medical records of hospitalized patients for adverse events (AEs). Because it's too labor-intensive to screen the records of all patients, usually a sample is screened. Our sample consists of patients who died during their stay because chances of finding preventable AEs in this subset are highest. Records were reviewed for fifteen triggers (n = 2182). When a trigger was present, the records were scrutinized by specialized medical doctors who searched for AEs. The positive predictive value (PPV) of the total trigger system and of the individual triggers was calculated. Additional analyses were performed to identify a possible optimization of the trigger system. In our sample, the trigger system had an overall PPV for AEs of 47%, 17% for potentially preventable AEs. More triggers present in a record increased the probability of detecting an AE. Adjustments to the trigger system slightly increased the positive predictive value but missed about 10% of the AEs detected with the original system. In our sample of deceased patients the trigger system has a PPV comparable to other samples. However still, an enormous amount of time and resources are spent on cases without AEs or with non-preventable AEs. Possibly, the performance could be further improved by combining triggers with clinical scores and laboratory results. This could be promising in reducing the costly and labor-intensive work of screening medical records.

Epidemiology of medical adverse events: perspectives from a single institute in Taiwan

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE

Epidemiology data of medical adverse events (MAEs) are crucial for patient safety policymaking. However, no epidemiological data on MAE exist in Taiwan. In this study, we aimed to investigate the incidence of MAEs at a major medical center in northern Taiwan.

METHODS

The Harvard Medical Practice Study methodology was modified using a criterion-based screening algorithm and critical medical record review process to investigate the risks and incidences of MAEs. A Criterion-Based Screening for Medical Adverse Events (CBSMAE) checklist was developed, and a three-tier strategy was applied to screen and review 2007 inpatient hospitalizations from a single institution.

RESULTS

A total of 2934 charts was sampled (Tier 1) and 950 possible MAEs were identified (Tier 2). One hundred and sixty-one probable MAE cases were subsequently critically reviewed (Tier 3). Nineteen (0.7%) MAE cases were confirmed. The MAEs involved 10 women and nine men (mean age, 70 years). Most MAEs were from the surgery department [11 (57.9%) patients]. The major admission diagnoses were cardiac diseases [7 (36.8%) patients] with a cardiac problem [13 (31.7%) patients] as the major comorbidity. Major MAE attributes were a staff technique problem [12 (46.2%) patients] and patients' underlying conditions (likelihood rating, 2.2). Eight (42.1%) patients required additional medical management, four (21.1%) patients had a disability, and five (26.3%) patients had in-hospital mortality. Night MAEs (47.4%) were considered preventable.

CONCLUSION

Surgical patients with cardiac conditions were at risk of MAE, particularly patients who received invasive procedures. The epidemiology information from this study can serve as baseline data to monitor a patient safety improvement campaign.

Disclosing medical errors to patients: effects of nonverbal involvement

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to test causal effects of physicians' nonverbal involvement on medical error disclosure outcomes.

METHODS

216 hospital outpatients were randomly assigned to two experimental treatment groups. The first group watched a video vignette of a verbally effective and nonverbally involved error disclosure. The second group was exposed to a verbally effective but nonverbally uninvolved error disclosure. All patients responded to seven outcome measures.

RESULTS

Patients in the nonverbally uninvolved error disclosure treatment group perceived the physician's apology as less sincere and remorseful compared to patients in the involved disclosure group. They also rated the implications of the error as more severe, were more likely to ascribe fault to the physician, and indicated a higher intent to change doctors after the disclosure.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study imply that nonverbal involvement during medical error disclosures facilitates more accurate patient understanding and assessment of the medical error and its consequences on their health and quality of life.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

In the context of disclosing medical errors, nonverbal involvement increases the likelihood that physicians will be able to continue caring for their patient. Thus, providers are advised to consider adopting this communication skill into their medical practice.

Risk factors for patient-reported medical errors in eleven countries

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to identify common risk factors for patient-reported medical errors across countries. In country-level analyses, differences in risks associated with error between health care systems were investigated. The joint effects of risks on error-reporting probability were modelled for hypothetical patients with different health care utilization patterns.

DESIGN

Data from the Commonwealth Fund's 2010 lnternational Survey of the General Public's Views of their Health Care System's Performance in 11 Countries.

SETTING

Representative population samples of 11 countries were surveyed (total sample = 19,738 adults). Utilization of health care, coordination of care problems and reported errors were assessed. Regression analyses were conducted to identify risk factors for patients' reports of medical, medication and laboratory errors across countries and in country-specific models.

RESULTS

Error was reported by 11.2% of patients but with marked differences between countries (range: 5.4-17.0%). Poor coordination of care was reported by 27.3%. The risk of patient-reported error was determined mainly by health care utilization: Emergency care (OR = 1.7, P < 0.001), hospitalization (OR = 1.6, P < 0.001) and the number of providers involved (OR three doctors = 2.0, P < 0.001) are important predictors. Poor care coordination is the single most important risk factor for reporting error (OR = 3.9, P < 0.001). Country-specific models yielded common and country-specific predictors for self-reported error. For high utilizers of care, the probability that errors are reported rises up to P = 0.68.

CONCLUSIONS

Safety remains a global challenge affecting many patients throughout the world. Large variability exists in the frequency of patient-reported error across countries. To learn from others' errors is not only essential within countries but may also prove a promising strategy internationally.

Impact of sample size on variation of adverse events and preventable adverse events: systematic review on epidemiology and contributing factors

OBJECTIVES

To perform a systematic review of the frequency of (preventable) adverse events (AE/PAE) and to analyse contributing factors, such as sample size, settings, type of events, terminology, methods of collecting data and characteristics of study populations.

REVIEW METHODS

Search of Medline and Embase from 1995 to 2007. Included were original papers with data on the frequency of AE or PAE, explicit definition of study population and information about methods of assessment. Results were included with percentages of patients having one or more AE/PAE. Extracted data enclosed contributing factors. Data were abstracted and analysed by two researchers independently.

RESULTS

156 studies in 152 publications met our inclusion criteria. 144/156 studies reported AE, 55 PAE (43 both). Sample sizes ranged from 60 to 8,493,876 patients (median: 1361 patients). The reported results for AE varied from 0.1% to 65.4%, and for PAE from 0.1% to 33.9%. Variation clearly decreased with increasing sample size. Estimates did not differ according to setting, type of event or terminology. In studies with fewer than 1000 patients, chart review prevailed, whereas surveys with more than 100,000 patients were based mainly on administrative data. No effect of patient characteristics was found.

CONCLUSIONS

The funnel-shaped distribution of AE and PAE rates with sample size is a probable consequence of variation and can be taken as an indirect indicator of study validity. A contributing factor may be the method of data assessment. Further research is needed to explain the results when analysing data by types of event or terminology.

[Patient safety in oncology surgery: experience of the São Paulo State Cancer Institute]

Patient safety concerns in surgery are increasing. The frequency of surgery-related adverse events and errors is high, and most could be avoided. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) proposed the Universal Protocol (UP-JCAHO) for preventing wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong person surgery. In Brazil, very few health-care institutions have adopted this Protocol. Thus, there is a need to improve its dissemination and assess its effectiveness. The aim of the present study was to report the experiences of the Sao Paulo State Cancer Institute (ICESP, acronym in Portuguese) in implementing the UP-JCAHO. The Protocol comprises three steps: pre-operative verification process, marking the operative site and Time out immediately before starting the procedure. The ICESP surgical center (SC) has been functioning since November 2008. The UP-JCAHO is applied to all surgeries. A total 1019 surgeries were performed up to June 2009. No errors or adverse events were registered. The implementation of the UP-JCAHO is simple. It can be a useful tool to prevent error and adverse events in SC.

Adverse events in a Tunisian hospital: results of a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Despite the worldwide growing attention to patient safety, Tunisia has no data on the magnitude and consequences of hospital adverse events (AEs).

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the incidence, nature and consequences of AEs and preventable AEs in a university hospital in Tunisia.

DESIGN AND SETTING

We opted for a two-stage retrospective medical record review of 620 inpatients admitted during 2005 based on the use of 18 screening criteria. Records were reviewed by a trained medical student, then by an expert physician when one or more criteria were identified. Main outcomes measures We determine the incidence, preventability and consequences of the AEs. Patients and admissions characteristics were also recorded.

RESULTS

Among 620 inpatients, 62 inpatients experienced an AE with an incidence of 10% (95% CI [7.6-12.3]). Surgical/invasive procedures and therapeutic errors were the most common AEs (55 and 21%, respectively). Among the confirmed events 60% were judged to be highly preventable and 21% led to patient death. All ages and both genders experienced equal rates of AEs. However, patients who experienced these events were significantly more exposed to extrinsic risk factors (all surgical interventions and invasive procedures that were listed in the revue form 2 of the questionnaire). Physician reviewers estimated that a total of 570 additional hospital days were associated with AEs.

CONCLUSION

This study confirms that preventable AEs were not rare in our context. They caused human harm and consumed a significant part of hospital resources. Thus, targeted interventions are needed.

Medication errors in chemotherapy: incidence, types and involvement of patients in prevention. A review of the literature

Medication errors in chemotherapy occur frequently and have a high potential to cause considerable harm. The objective of this article is to review the literature of medication errors in chemotherapy, their incidences and characteristics, and to report on the growing evidence on involvement of patients in error prevention. Among all medication errors and adverse drug events, administration errors are common. Current developments in oncology, namely, increased outpatient treatment at ambulatory infusion units and the diffusion of oral chemotherapy to the outpatient setting, are likely to increase hazards since the process of preparing and administering the drug is often delegated to patients or their caregivers. While professional activities to error incidence reduction are effective and important, it has been increasingly acknowledged that patients often observe errors in the administration of drugs and can thus be a valuable resource in error prevention. However, patients need appropriate information, motivation and encouragement to act as 'vigilant partners'. Examples of simple strategies to involve patients in their safety are presented. Evidence indicates that high self-efficacy and perceived effectiveness of the specific preventive actions increase likelihood of participation in error prevention. Clinicians play a crucial role in supporting and enabling the chemotherapy patient in approaching errors.

Assessment of ePrescription quality: an observational study at three mail-order pharmacies

BACKGROUND

The introduction of electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) or ePrescriptions in ambulatory health care has been suggested to have a positive impact on the prescribing and dispensing processes. Thereby, implying that ePrescribing can improve safety, quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. In December 2007, 68% of all new prescriptions were transferred electronically in Sweden. The aim of the present study was to assess the quality of ePrescriptions by comparing the proportions of ePrescriptions and non-electronic prescriptions necessitating a clarification contact (correction, completion or change) with the prescriber at the time of dispensing.

METHODS

A direct observational study was performed at three Swedish mail-order pharmacies which were known to dispense a large proportion of ePrescriptions (38-75%). Data were gathered on all ePrescriptions dispensed at these pharmacies over a three week period in February 2006. All clarification contacts with prescribers were included in the study and were classified and assessed in comparison with all drug prescriptions dispensed at the same pharmacies over the specified period.

RESULTS

Of the 31225 prescriptions dispensed during the study period, clarification contacts were made for 2.0% (147/7532) of new ePrescriptions and 1.2% (79/6833) of new non-electronic prescriptions. This represented a relative risk (RR) of 1.7 (95% CI 1.3-2.2) for new ePrescriptions compared to new non-electronic prescriptions. The increased RR was mainly due to 'Dosage and directions for use', which had an RR of 7.6 (95% CI 2.8-20.4) when compared to other clarification contacts. In all, 89.5% of the suggested pharmacist interventions were accepted by the prescriber, 77.7% (192/247) as suggested and an additional 11.7% (29/247) after a modification during contact with the prescriber.

CONCLUSION

The increased proportion of prescriptions necessitating a clarification contact for new ePrescriptions compared to new non-electronic prescriptions indicates the need for an increased focus on quality aspects in ePrescribing deployment. ETP technology should be developed towards a two-way communication between the prescriber and the pharmacist with automated checks of missing, inaccurate, or ambiguous information. This would enhance safety and quality for the patient and also improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness within the health care system.

Designing healthcare organizations to reduce medical errors and enhance patient safety

Medical errors and patient safety are urgent healthcare management challenges. To date, not enough has occurred to provide a systematic organizational design framework for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety. The authors offer such a framework by integrating multiple organizational factors and using well-accepted organization theory, citing relevant empirical research studies of medical errors and patient safety to support specific organizational factors. They discuss organizational design implications and recommendations for healthcare executives.

Patient-physician racial and ethnic concordance and perceived medical errors

In this paper, I use nationally representative survey data to examine the relationship between patient-physician racial/ethnic concordance and perceived medical errors in the USA. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, we find that White patients treated by White physicians have 33% lower odds of reporting medical errors than White patients treated by non-White physicians. In contrast, patient-physician racial/ethnic concordance has no effect on perceived medical errors among non-White patients. The results suggest that the role of racial/ethnic concordance in perceptions of health care safety varies by patients' racial/ethnic background.

[Patient safety in hospitals--a health services research issue]

Health services research as a multidisciplinary approach to transfer scientific results and clinical experience to health care includes quality research as one of its main topics. Quality research describes the total of conditions, which hinder or promote quality of care as one important output factor of health care. At present, patient safety research is one of the central issues of quality research, as preventable adverse events represent the most substantial consequences of problems in quality. Research issues start with epidemiological data, which are lacking in Germany, and the transfer of international data to the German health care system. Reporting instruments including critical incident reporting systems have to be validated, patient safety indicators should be developed, under consideration of the use of administrative data. Patient safety research addresses the effect of public disclosure of adverse events, errors and injury in respect to improvement of care and should analyse as well as elaborate prevention strategies for the most important adverse events and errors. Team factors such as communication and supervision and determinants of safety culture are issues, which illustrate the significant role of management theory and organisational research.

Automated detection of adverse events using natural language processing of discharge summaries

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether natural language processing (NLP) can effectively detect adverse events defined in the New York Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System (NYPORTS) using discharge summaries.

DESIGN

An adverse event detection system for discharge summaries using the NLP system MedLEE was constructed to identify 45 NYPORTS event types. The system was first applied to a random sample of 1,000 manually reviewed charts. The system then processed all inpatient cases with electronic discharge summaries for two years. All system-identified events were reviewed, and performance was compared with traditional reporting.

MEASUREMENTS

System sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value, with manual review serving as the gold standard.

RESULTS

The system correctly identified 16 of 65 events in 1,000 charts. Of 57,452 total electronic discharge summaries, the system identified 1,590 events in 1,461 cases, and manual review verified 704 events in 652 cases, resulting in an overall sensitivity of 0.28 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.17-0.42), specificity of 0.985 (CI: 0.984-0.986), and positive predictive value of 0.45 (CI: 0.42-0.47) for detecting cases with events and an average specificity of 0.9996 (CI: 0.9996-0.9997) per event type. Traditional event reporting detected 322 events during the period (sensitivity 0.09), of which the system identified 110 as well as 594 additional events missed by traditional methods.

CONCLUSION

NLP is an effective technique for detecting a broad range of adverse events in text documents and outperformed traditional and previous automated adverse event detection methods.

The epidemiology of preventable adverse drug events: a review of the literature

BACKGROUND

A growing amount of data suggests that adverse drug events (ADEs) in hospital settings are frequent and result in substantial harm. Even though prevention is where efforts must be directed, only a few studies have reported on the preventability of these events. The objective of this article is to review the literature of ADEs and their preventability, and to report on their incidences, characteristics, risk factors, costs and prevention strategies.

METHODS

We systematically searched Medline and Embase for literature published between 1980 and June 2002. All articles reporting primary data on the incidences of ADEs and their preventability in hospital settings were included.

RESULTS

In the 8 articles retrieved the incidences of ADEs were between 0.7% and 6.5% of hospitalized patients; in up to 56.6% these events were judged to be preventable. Furthermore, ADEs accounted for 2.4% to 4.1% of admissions to inpatient facilities; preventability was stated in up to 69.0% of these events. A substantial body of preventable ADEs, the so-called medication errors, occur in the process of ordering, transcribing, dispensing and administrating the drugs. Further investigations into medication errors at the ordering stage reveal their occurrence in up to 57.0 per 1,000 orders. Between 18.7% and 57.7% of those errors have the potential for harm, but only in about 1% they result in preventable ADEs.

IMPLICATIONS

The detection of errors having only the potential for harm by means of computerized surveillance has shown to be a useful technique in order to understand and prevent ADEs. Apart from the use of sophisticated computer techniques the participation of pharmacists in the drug prescribing process results in a tremendous error reduction. The greatest task in changing the health care system into a system with safety as its first priority is to create a culture of constant learning from mistakes among health care professionals. The appreciation of the health care teams' ideas and perceptions for improvement, and their implementation through small improvement cycles, may represent the leading strength in error reduction and health care improvement.