Group items tagged

" Among malpractice claims, diagnostic errors appear to be the most common, most costly and most dangerous of medical mistakes. We found roughly equal numbers of lethal and non-lethal errors in our analysis, suggesting that the public health burden of diagnostic errors could be twice that previously estimated. Healthcare stakeholders should consider diagnostic safety a critical health policy issue. "

"The trap that we nearly fell into is called anchoring bias. The patient was admitted to our team with the diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal. Once we had that label in our minds, we fit everything into that diagnostic box, anchoring all of his symptoms to that diagnosis, even ones that didn't quite fit."

" We stress the importance of ambient and contextual influences on the quality of individual decision making and the need to address factors known to impair calibration of the decision maker. We also emphasise the importance of introducing these concepts and corollary development of training in critical thinking in the undergraduate level in medical education. "

"Although resident education about medical errors has improved since 2002, opportunities to model learning from mistakes are frequently missed."

doc2doc"

A first person reflection on a past error

"Intimidating and disruptive behaviors can foster medical errors,(1,2,3) contribute to poor patient satisfaction and to preventable adverse outcomes,(1,4,5) increase the cost of care,(4,5) and cause qualified clinicians, administrators and managers to seek new positions in more professional environments."