Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

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Admitting medical errors is one of the professional obligations of physicians that unfortunately involves numerous challenges. The present paper aimed to investigate the attitude of surgery faculty and residents towards medical error disclosure and factors affecting it. In this cross-sectional descriptive and analytic study, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed among all faculty and residents of the department of general surgery of the teaching hospitals of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The response rate was 84.1% (53 out of a total of 63). Tendency to make minor and major errors among the respondents was 39.6% and 49.1% respectively, and 71.7% declared that the most significant factor hindering error disclosure was fear of litigation. Only 16.7% (8) had disclosed their most recent medical errors to their patients, 25% (2) of whom had to face legal action. There seems to be a clear distinction between the doctors’ inclination to disclose their medical errors and what actually happens in their practice, the most important reason being their professed fear of litigation. Considering the need in the majority of physicians for appropriate training on the subject of medical errors and communication strategies, it seems that in order to resolve this issue, changes need to be made in the current system for error management so as to provide professional support for physicians who make medical errors, and doctors should receive the necessary training on ethical principles and patient communication strategies.

Keywords: medical error, error disclosure, surgeon

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