Reducing errors in emergency surgery

Errors are to be expected in health care. Adverse events occur in around 10% of surgical patients and may be even more common in emergency surgery. There is little formal teaching on surgical error in surgical education and training programmes despite their frequency.

This paper reviews surgical error and provides a classification system, to facilitate learning. The approach and language used to enable teaching about surgical error was developed through a review of key literature and consensus by the founding faculty of the Management of Surgical Emergencies course, currently delivered by General Surgeons Australia.

Errors may be classified as being the result of commission, omission or inition. An error of inition is a failure of effort or will and is a failure of professionalism. The risk of error can be minimized by good situational awareness, matching perception to reality, and, during treatment, reassessing the patient, team and plan. It is important to recognize and acknowledge an error when it occurs and then to respond appropriately. The response will involve rectifying the error where possible but also disclosing, reporting and reviewing at a system level all the root causes. This should be done without shaming or blaming. However, the individual surgeon still needs to reflect on their own contribution and performance.

A classification of surgical error has been developed that promotes understanding of how the error was generated, and utilizes a language that encourages reflection, reporting and response by surgeons and their teams.