Medical Errors from Healthcare Professional’s Perspective at a Tertiary Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Medical Errors from Healthcare Professional’s Perspective at a Tertiary Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the perspective and attitude of healthcare professionals toward medical errors.

Method: Cross-sectional study used to assess the knowledge on medical errors and attitude of staff towards adverse events by using a self-administered questionnaire.

Setting and Participants: a random sample of health care providers in a tertiary hospital, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

Results: 75% and 72%, respectively of the respondents agreed that their fear of losing their jobs and punishment might prevent them from reporting an error, and (68%) of respondents agreed on the fear of legal issues after reporting.

Conclusions: medical errors reporting should be as easy as possible, anonymous and confidential, staff development about the various issues related to medical errors, particularly defining and reporting these errors, provide intensive training of health providers on medical errors, and provide ongoing feedback on what is being done with medical errors.