[Errors and complications in internal medicine]

The "Komplikationenliste" (list of complications) of the association of the heads of departments of the Swiss society of internal medicine is a clinical tool for the registration and reduction of complications/errors of medical treatment. It is the aim to improve patient safety in hospital medicine. By the systematic and prospective analysis of interventions and complications in the 26 participating medical departments it is possible to collect also rare incidents. All the complications and errors are communicated to all the departments of internal medicine in Switzerland in order to reduce them. The principle for the reduction of such events is the elimination of unsafe actions and conditions and apparently harmless errors in daily diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in order to avoid potentially serious consequences.