PMID- 23384420
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20130919
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1472-6963 (Electronic)
IS  - 1472-6963 (Linking)
VI  - 13
DP  - 2013 Feb 5
TI  - Doctors are to blame for perceived medical adverse events. A cross sectional 
      population study. The Tromso Study.
PG  - 46
LID - 10.1186/1472-6963-13-46 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Most current knowledge of the incidence of medical adverse events 
      (AEs) comes from studies carried out in hospital settings. Little is known about 
      AEs occurring outside hospitals, in spite the fact that most of contacts between 
      patients and health care take place in primary care. Small sample population 
      studies report that 4-49% of the general public have experienced AEs related to 
      their own or family members  care.The purpose with the present study was to 
      investigate the occurrence of experienced medical adverse events in a large 
      general population. METHODS: We invited 19763 inhabitants of a municipality in 
      northern Norway, age 30 years and older, to fill in a questionnaire. Main outcome 
      measures were life time prevalence of AEs experienced by respondents or their 
      first degree relatives, perceived responsibility for and predictors of such 
      events, as well as formal complaints as a reaction to the events. RESULTS: The 
      response rate was 66%. Nine and 10% of the respondents reported self-experienced 
      adverse events, and 15 and 19% (men and women, respectively) that their relatives 
      had experienced AEs. Logistic regression models showed that the strongest 
      predictors of reporting self-experienced adverse events were: Having been 
      persuaded to accept an unwanted examination or treatment, difficulties in getting 
      a referral from primary to specialist health care, and inadequate communication 
      with the doctor. Of the respondents who had experienced adverse events 
      personally, 62% placed the responsibility for the event on the general 
      practitioner, 39% on the hospital doctor, and 19% on failing routines or 
      cooperation. Only 7% of men and 14% of women who reported self-experienced events 
      handed in a formal complaint. CONCLUSIONS: The public predominantly place the 
      responsibility for medical adverse events on doctors, in particular general 
      practitioners, and to a lesser degree on the system. This should be emphasised by 
      doctors and managers who communicate with patients who have experienced AEs, and 
      in patient safety work. Only a small fraction of adverse events results in a 
      formal written complaint. Therefore, such complaints are of limited value as a 
      basis for patient safety work.
FAU - Hotvedt, Ragnar
AU  - Hotvedt R
AD  - Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of 
      Tromso, Tromso 9037, Norway. ragnar.hotvedt@uit.no
FAU - Forde, Olav Helge
AU  - Forde OH
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20130205
PL  - England
TA  - BMC Health Serv Res
JT  - BMC health services research
JID - 101088677
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Aged, 80 and over
MH  - Confidence Intervals
MH  - Cross-Sectional Studies
MH  - Female
MH  - General Practice
MH  - Humans
MH  - Logistic Models
MH  - Male
MH  - *Medical Errors
MH  - Medical Staff, Hospital
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Norway
MH  - Odds Ratio
MH  - Patient Safety
MH  - *Scapegoating
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
PMC - PMC3623705
EDAT- 2013/02/07 06:00
MHDA- 2013/09/21 06:00
PMCR- 2013/02/05
CRDT- 2013/02/07 06:00
PHST- 2012/02/14 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/02/01 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2013/02/07 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2013/02/07 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/09/21 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2013/02/05 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 1472-6963-13-46 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/1472-6963-13-46 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - BMC Health Serv Res. 2013 Feb 5;13:46. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-13-46.