Intersystem Medical Error Discovery: A Document Analysis of Ethical Guidelines

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Healthcare Policy
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Patient safety initiatives emphasize transparency in medical errors.
• Consensus exists on provider communication for their own errors.
• Guidance for responding to other providers' errors, especially across systems (IMED), is less clear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze available ethical guidelines for healthcare professionals facing intersystem medical error discovery (IMED).
• To identify guidance on provider actions, inter-provider interactions, and related issues in IMED scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Document analysis of ethical guidelines from professional associations.
• Thematic analysis applied to 150 documents from 120 organizations.
• Examination of guidance related to IMED scenarios.

Main Results:

• Identified 150 documents with ambiguous and practically limited guidance for IMED.
• Most applicable guidance was restricted to cases of incompetence, limiting broader use.
• Guidelines presented conflicting advice on patient honesty versus peer criticism.

Conclusions:

• Existing ethics codes offer minimal and often conflicting guidance for IMED.
• National organizations should develop frameworks for navigating IMED communication challenges.