The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour of physicians in cases of medical error as well as the nature of the information that should be given to the patient and to ascertain whether it is possible to institute a full error disclosure policy. Data was collected through the...

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Autores principales: D’Errico, Stefano, Pennelli, Sara, Colasurdo, Antonio Prospero, Frati, Paola, Sicuro, Lorella, Fineschi, Vittorio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4460857/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25889588
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-0794-3
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author D’Errico, Stefano
Pennelli, Sara
Colasurdo, Antonio Prospero
Frati, Paola
Sicuro, Lorella
Fineschi, Vittorio
author_facet D’Errico, Stefano
Pennelli, Sara
Colasurdo, Antonio Prospero
Frati, Paola
Sicuro, Lorella
Fineschi, Vittorio
author_sort D’Errico, Stefano
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour of physicians in cases of medical error as well as the nature of the information that should be given to the patient and to ascertain whether it is possible to institute a full error disclosure policy. Data was collected through the completion of anonymous questionnaires by medical directors of the IRCCS CROB (the Oncology Centre of Basilicata, Italy). METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire consisting of 15 questions was prepared and administered to all the physicians working at the IRCCS CROB – the Oncology Centre of Basilicata. The main aim of the research was to evaluate the feasibility of adopting a full disclosure policy and the extent to which such a policy could help reduce administration and legal costs. RESULTS: The physicians interviewed unanimously recognize the importance of error disclosure, given that they themselves would want to be informed if they were the patients. However, 50% have never disclosed a medical error to their patients. Fear of losing the patient’s trust (33%) and fear of lawsuits (31%) are the main obstacles to error disclosure. CONCLUSIONS: The authors found that physicians were in favour of a full policy disclosure at the IRCCS CROB – the Oncology Centre of Basilicata. Many more studies need to be carried out in order to comprehend the economic impact of a full error disclosure policy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0794-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-44608572015-06-10 The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic D’Errico, Stefano Pennelli, Sara Colasurdo, Antonio Prospero Frati, Paola Sicuro, Lorella Fineschi, Vittorio BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the behaviour of physicians in cases of medical error as well as the nature of the information that should be given to the patient and to ascertain whether it is possible to institute a full error disclosure policy. Data was collected through the completion of anonymous questionnaires by medical directors of the IRCCS CROB (the Oncology Centre of Basilicata, Italy). METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire consisting of 15 questions was prepared and administered to all the physicians working at the IRCCS CROB – the Oncology Centre of Basilicata. The main aim of the research was to evaluate the feasibility of adopting a full disclosure policy and the extent to which such a policy could help reduce administration and legal costs. RESULTS: The physicians interviewed unanimously recognize the importance of error disclosure, given that they themselves would want to be informed if they were the patients. However, 50% have never disclosed a medical error to their patients. Fear of losing the patient’s trust (33%) and fear of lawsuits (31%) are the main obstacles to error disclosure. CONCLUSIONS: The authors found that physicians were in favour of a full policy disclosure at the IRCCS CROB – the Oncology Centre of Basilicata. Many more studies need to be carried out in order to comprehend the economic impact of a full error disclosure policy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0794-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4460857/ /pubmed/25889588 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-0794-3 Text en © D'Errico et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
D’Errico, Stefano
Pennelli, Sara
Colasurdo, Antonio Prospero
Frati, Paola
Sicuro, Lorella
Fineschi, Vittorio
The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title_full The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title_fullStr The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title_full_unstemmed The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title_short The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic
title_sort right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an italian cancer centre/clinic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4460857/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25889588
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-0794-3
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