Doctors often don't fess up to errors

Last Updated: 2007-05-23 14:00:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Physicians may say it's important to disclose medical errors to patients, yet many do not when errors occur in their own practice, according to a new report.

"Our goal was to learn more about clinicians' attitudes, but also what they actually have and have not done," lead author Dr. Lauris C. Kaldjian, from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, said in a statement.

The team surveyed 538 attending physicians, residents, and medical students from academic centers in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeastern regions of the US.

According to the report, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, 97 percent of respondents said they would disclose a hypothetical error resulting in minor harm to a patient. Ninety-three percent said they would disclose an error causing major harm.

In real life, however, 41 percent of respondents said they had disclosed an actual minor error to a patient and just 5 percent had told a patient of an actual major error. Conversely, 19 percent of respondents acknowledged they did not disclose an actual minor error and 4 percent acknowledged not revealing an actual major error.

"Most doctors recognize that they're fallible, but they still strive for perfection," Kaldjian noted. "The idea persists that the physician rides into the clinic on the white horse. To come in as the healer and then realize that you have harmed is a difficult thing to accept, let alone admit."

SOURCE: Journal of General Internal Medicine, online May 1, 2007.