Doctors reluctant to disclose errors

IOWA CITY, Iowa, May 10 (UPI) -- Doctors who say they would reveal a hypothetical medical error often do not do so in actual practice, say Iowa researchers.

Lauris Kaldjian and colleagues at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine wanted to explore what factors motivated physicians to disclose medical errors to their patients, so they sent out surveys to faculty physicians, residents and medical students at academic medical centers in the Midwestern and Eastern regions of the United States.

From the 538 responses, the team learned that, although 97 percent of the faculty and resident physicians said they would disclose an error that resulted in minor harm (prolonged treatment or discomfort), and 93 percent said they would disclose an error that caused major harm (disability or death), in practice just 41 percent reported actually having disclosed a minor error and only 5 percent had revealed a major error.

Nineteen percent acknowledge having made a minor error they did not disclose, and 4 percent said they had kept a major error secret. Experienced physicians were more likely to admit a mistake than younger practitioners.

Doctors who had been involved in malpractice suits were as likely to disclose an error as those who had not.

Kaldjian said that doctors who said that forgiveness was an important part of their spiritual values were more likely to admit errors than those who did not hold this belief.

The survey appears in the current online issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.