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Errors were carefully classified. The largest category, accounting for 19 percent, was technical errors during procedures, and 56 percent of these caused major injury or harm. Next were medication errors (14 percent); these included dosage mistakes and giving medications to which the patient was allergic, or that were contraindicated. Testing errors (10 percent) included physician errors (ordering incorrect tests; not reviewing tests; not acting on the results) and lab errors (lost specimens; errors in labeling and interpretation of results). Surgical planning errors (scheduling mistakes; failing to ensure that all preoperative studies were complete; and judgment errors, such as undertaking surgery when it was risky) accounted for another 10 percent.
Younger physicians were more likely than physicians over age 50 to report errors (approximately 60 versus 40 percent). Other errors included:
-- Equipment errors -- equipment not available or improperly assembled; equipment failure (9.4 percent)
-- Errors in post-operative care (8.5 percent)
-- Wrong site surgery -- wrong patient, wrong organ, or wrong side (6 percent)
-- Drug errors during surgery (4 percent)
-- Communication errors (4 percent)
Roberson and colleagues believe that the proportion of physicians encountering an error -- 45 percent -- is an underestimate. They suggest that doctors may not be trained to recognize errors, and may tend to recall errors that have serious consequences but overlook minor ones.
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