Patient safety in dermatology: a review of the literature

We performed a literature review of patient safety topics pertinent to dermatology and related to outpatient settings for situations in which data from dermatology are lacking.

Searches in MEDLINE via PubMed interface, OVID and Google Scholar were carried out from October, 2008 through May, 2009 for English-language articles published between 1948 and 2009. Each search combined 2 or 3 of the following terms: patient safety, medical error, human error, preventable adverse event, dermatology, outpatient, ambulatory care, medication error, diagnostic error, laboratory error, pathology error, office-based surgery, wrong-site procedure, infections, falls, laser safety, scope of practice. Personal communications, websites, books, dermatology newsletters and major textbooks were also scrutinized. Potentially relevant articles and communications were critically evaluated by the authors. References from these articles were searched for "other relevant articles."

Patient safety studies in dermatology and outpatient settings are lagging behind those in inpatient settings. Systems changes are needed to reduce medical errors rather than penalize individual healthcare workers. Although technology may improve patient safety in numerous aspects, it introduces new sources of errors.

Our review reveals few studies on dermatologic patient safety, supporting the pressing need for such studies and reports in the future.