Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 27, no. 1 (2008): 246-255 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.246 © 2008 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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DataWatch

Lost Opportunities: How Physicians Communicate About Medical Errors

Jane Garbutt, Amy D. Waterman, Julie M. Kapp, William Claiborne Dunagan, Wendy Levinson, Victoria Fraser and Thomas H. Gallagher

Although physicians have been described as "reluctant partners" in reporting medical errors, this survey of 1,082 U.S. physicians found that most were willing to share their knowledge about harmful errors and near misses with their institutions and wanted to hear about innovations to prevent common errors. However, physicians found current systems to report and disseminate this information inadequate and relied on informal discussions with colleagues. Thus, much important information remains invisible to institutions and the health care system. Efforts to promote error reporting might not reach their potential unless physicians become more effectively engaged in reporting errors at their institutions.

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