What is it about?
Presents the results of a interview survey of GPs where they were asked about their knowledge of the system for reporting significant events (errors) which might have adversely affected patients. Doctors tended not to report significant events if the situation was one they could manage. There were several reasons for this and fear of litigation was not significant. They were more concerned with the reputation of the practice and their relationship with patients. But, they were also of the view that they didn't receive feedback on error reporting, so there was no apparent organisational learning.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Most policy documents assume doctor's fear of litigation is what prevents them from reporting adverse events.
Perspectives
This is a small survey and it is not possible to generalise to the whole GP population. On the other hand, one of the strengths of survey by interview is that the interviewer is able to establish a trusting relationship with the respondents. They were then able to to speak about a sensitive topic and we were able to gain a perspective on safety reporting which a quantitative survey by questionnaire would have been denied.
Associate Professor David M Rea
Swansea University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Patient safety in primary care: incident reporting and significant event reviews in British general practice, Health & Social Care in the Community, March 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12221.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
