Doctors participating in internal medicine hospital conferences designed to review adverse medical events do not often discuss related medical errors, according to a study led by researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). Study results showed that participants in surgery conferences were more likely than those in internal medicine conferences to discuss medical errors as errors and to attribute errors to a particular cause. Conference leaders for both groups missed opportunities to use explicit language in error discussion, according to the researchers. The study appears in the December 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Posted by Editor at December 4, 2003 11:12 AM