[A survey on some Italian doctors' opinions about errors in clinical medicine]

The paper discusses opinions on medical errors from the scientific literature and from a survey on 173 medical doctors working in a large hospital (> 500 beds) in Rome (Italy). The study is meant to explore doctors' opinions on professional and/or system responsibility in front of errors. In our hypothesis doctors are more favourable to attribute responsibility to individual carers rather than to institutions, and they are interested in solutions involving relational and communicational enhancements more than in technological or systemic innovations for risk management. The focus of the questionnaire is on errors' frequency, their principal causes and possible remedies, and their emotional impact. The main findings of the survey are presented. They confirm the idea of a medical culture essentially focused on individual responsibility rather than on system's responsibility. According to doctors the major causes of errors result from work overload and from a lack of communication inside medical teams and among different medical specialties. System errors, as well as technological solutions, are more quoted by doctors working in laboratories. Psychological consequences of errors vary by doctors' sex, length of exercise, and place of activity.