Risk factors for patient-reported medical errors in eleven countries

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Patient-reported medical errors represent a significant global challenge.
• There is substantial international variation in the frequency of reported medical errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify common risk factors for patient-reported medical errors across diverse countries.
• To investigate variations in error risks between different healthcare systems.
• To model the combined effects of risk factors on error reporting probability.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the 2010 Commonwealth Fund International Survey of General Public's Views of their Health Care System's Performance.
• Conducted regression analyses on a sample of 19,738 adults across 11 countries.
• Assessed healthcare utilization, care coordination problems, and reported medical, medication, and laboratory errors.

Main Results:

• 11.2% of patients reported errors, with country-specific rates ranging from 5.4% to 17.0%.
• Key predictors of error reporting included emergency care utilization (OR=1.7), hospitalization (OR=1.6), and number of providers (OR=2.0 for three doctors).
• Poor care coordination was the strongest predictor (OR=3.9), and error reporting probability increased with higher healthcare utilization.

Conclusions:

• Patient safety is a worldwide concern with considerable cross-national differences in error reporting.
• International collaboration and learning from errors are crucial for improving patient safety globally.