Germany sets up a system for reporting medical mistakes
http://www.100md.com
《英国医生杂志》
Germany has set up a critical incident reporting system on the internet so that GPs and specialists can anonymously report any mistakes that they have made or that they have seen being made by colleagues.
Last week the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians announced in Berlin that it would be posting on a website all reported incidents once they had been checked for their veracity and anonymity (www.cirsmedical.ch/kbv). The system will be run by the anaesthetist Daniel Scheidegger, from Basel, who developed it 12 years ago for use in Switzerland.
"This system is about learning from mistakes rather than blaming them on somebody," said Andreas K鰄ler, head of the association at a press conference in Berlin. "If mistakes are recognised in time, causes and possible sources of systematic errors can be detected and abolished."
He added that discussions about mistakes had been virtually impossible in the past because doctors were under the constant threat of legal prosecution and insurance companies were reluctant to cover the costs of medical negligence if mistakes were admitted.
The introduction of the system follows a report from the German government抯 expert council on health system affairs in 2003 that demanded the establishment of a pressure-free culture to deal with medical mistakes in Germany.
Ulrich Weigeldt, a member of the association抯 board told the press conference, that the new system would cooperate with another project developed at Frankfurt University that anonymously monitors mistakes made by GPs (www.jeder-fehler-zaehlt.de).
Peter Sawicki, head of the German Institute for Quality and Economics in the Health System, commented that it would remain to be seen whether the system and other recent activities on patient safety, such as the establishment of a task force on patient safety (www.aktionsbuendnis-patientensicherheit.de) would do more than just serve as a placebo to the public and whether the association would take steps to tackle safety risks if they became apparent.
The introduction of the system coincides with a public debate about patient safety in Germany. A surgeon, Matthias Rothmund, from Marburg, recently demanded, in a speech when opening the annual conference of the German Surgical Society in Berlin, that surgeons speak out when they saw mistakes being made. He called for "the end of silence." He pointed out that more patients in Germany died every year from medical negligence than from AIDS or breast cancer.(Heidelberg Annette Tuffs)
Last week the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians announced in Berlin that it would be posting on a website all reported incidents once they had been checked for their veracity and anonymity (www.cirsmedical.ch/kbv). The system will be run by the anaesthetist Daniel Scheidegger, from Basel, who developed it 12 years ago for use in Switzerland.
"This system is about learning from mistakes rather than blaming them on somebody," said Andreas K鰄ler, head of the association at a press conference in Berlin. "If mistakes are recognised in time, causes and possible sources of systematic errors can be detected and abolished."
He added that discussions about mistakes had been virtually impossible in the past because doctors were under the constant threat of legal prosecution and insurance companies were reluctant to cover the costs of medical negligence if mistakes were admitted.
The introduction of the system follows a report from the German government抯 expert council on health system affairs in 2003 that demanded the establishment of a pressure-free culture to deal with medical mistakes in Germany.
Ulrich Weigeldt, a member of the association抯 board told the press conference, that the new system would cooperate with another project developed at Frankfurt University that anonymously monitors mistakes made by GPs (www.jeder-fehler-zaehlt.de).
Peter Sawicki, head of the German Institute for Quality and Economics in the Health System, commented that it would remain to be seen whether the system and other recent activities on patient safety, such as the establishment of a task force on patient safety (www.aktionsbuendnis-patientensicherheit.de) would do more than just serve as a placebo to the public and whether the association would take steps to tackle safety risks if they became apparent.
The introduction of the system coincides with a public debate about patient safety in Germany. A surgeon, Matthias Rothmund, from Marburg, recently demanded, in a speech when opening the annual conference of the German Surgical Society in Berlin, that surgeons speak out when they saw mistakes being made. He called for "the end of silence." He pointed out that more patients in Germany died every year from medical negligence than from AIDS or breast cancer.(Heidelberg Annette Tuffs)