Errors and adverse events in family medicine: developing and validating a Canadian taxonomy of errors

To develop a taxonomy of errors derived solely from the content of error reports using Canadian data from the Primary Care International Study of Medical Errors.

Secondary analysis of data from a descriptive, cross-sectional, self-report survey.

Community-based family medicine clinics.

Family physicians.

Implementation of an error-reporting system for family medicine.

Type of error, type of causal factor.

Six types of errors or adverse events (administrative, communication, diagnostic, documentation, medication, and surgical or procedural) and 10 causal factors (case complexity, discontinuity of care, failure to follow protocol or accepted practice, fatigue, gap in knowledge, high workload, insufficient information on pharmacologic properties of medication, medication side effects, relationship dynamics, and structural problems) were identified.

Our taxonomy differs from that adopted by the Primary Care International Study of Medical Errors. We propose that our taxonomy is better suited for the purposes of family physicians reporting errors in Canada.