Factors affecting the medical errors of physicians working in the emergency department of Shahid Beheshti hospital in Shiraz

 

Mohammad Amiri¹, Abbas Yazdanpanah^2*, Jamalledin Alvaani³

 

¹Department of Healthcare Management, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, IRAN.

{²Assistant Professor, Department of Healthcare Management} {³Department of Psychology}

Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, IRAN.

 

Abstract              Background and Aim: Medical errors are among the work-related and professional misconducts that individuals and owners of the profession commit while doing their professional and occupational tasks. In this study, a medical error means that there is a violation of the special requirements that the medical profession has to deal with. Method: This study is a descriptive-applied research in which the correlation method has been used. The research sample consisted of 17 physicians working in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences who were selected by simple random sampling method. In order to evaluate the variables, Ghanadi et al.’s (2010) questionnaire including personal and accountability factors, physician experience and diagnostic factors was used. Results: There was a significant relationship between variables of age (p <0.001), salary (p <0.001), remuneration (p = 0.018), service experience per year (p = 0.44), however, gender (p = 0.145) did not show to have a significant relationship with medical error. The relationship between the profile of individual factors and medical errors shows that there is a significant relationship between remuneration (p = 0. 317) and medical errors (p = 0.012), but there is no significant relationship between gender (p=0.145) and age (p = 0.007) of physician and medical errors. The value of t obtained is -4.04, which is significant with respect to the level of significance obtained (0.000) at the 99% confidence level. On the other hand, there is a significant difference between the medical experience and the medical errors, which confirms the second hypothesis. The value of t obtained is 0.638, which according to the level of significance obtained (0.001) is significant at 99% confidence level. The physician's accountability affects the medical errors. The value of t obtained is -2.571, which is significant with respect to the level of significance obtained (0.11) at the 95% confidence level. In other words, it can be said that gender has affected diagnostic factors. There is a significant difference between diagnostic factors and medical error. Therefore, the fourth hypothesis is confirmed. Conclusion: Medical errors education should be one of the operational objectives of medical schools in general and hospitals in particular, and this should be mentioned in educational planning.

Key Words: Medical errors, Physicians, Individual factors, Diagnostic, Shiraz.