Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Introduction
- 32 Organizational ethics
- 33 Priority setting
- 34 Disclosure of medical error
- 35 Conflict of interest in education and patient care
- 36 Public health ethics
- 37 Emergency and disaster scenarios
- 38 Rural healthcare ethics
- 39 Community healthcare ethics
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
34 - Disclosure of medical error
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Section I Information problems
- Section II End of life care
- Section III Pregnant women and children
- Section IV Genetics and biotechnology
- Section V Research ethics
- Section VI Health systems and institutions
- Introduction
- 32 Organizational ethics
- 33 Priority setting
- 34 Disclosure of medical error
- 35 Conflict of interest in education and patient care
- 36 Public health ethics
- 37 Emergency and disaster scenarios
- 38 Rural healthcare ethics
- 39 Community healthcare ethics
- Section VII Using clinical ethics to make an impact in healthcare
- Section VIII Global health ethics
- Section IX Religious and cultural perspectives in bioethics
- Section X Specialty bioethics
- Index
- References
Summary
A 77-year-old farmer with recurring kidney stones visits his urologist for an annual examination. Prior to seeing the patient, the physician is taken aside by her nurse, who tells her the patient had been in the emergency department the previous night with hematuria. A CAT scan had been done, which indicated that the renal tumor seen on last year's CAT scan was larger and there were now lung metastases. The physician cannot remember ever seeing the radiology report from last year. To her complete surprise, it is found filed in the patient's chart. There is no record in the chart that the results were ever shared with the patient. She considers herself extremely meticulous and has never had such an oversight before. The urologist considers what she should tell the patient.
A 12-year-old boy has cataract surgery at a large teaching hospital. At a critical moment the surgeon's hand slips, severely rupturing the lens capsule. The planned implantation of an intraocular lens has to be abandoned. Instead, the patient will have to use a contact lens. The physician wonders what he should tell the patient and his family about the surgery.
What is medical error?
Well-publicized reports of harm occurring to patients as a result of their medical care in the USA (Patient Safety Foundation, 1998), Canada (Sinclair, 1994) and the UK (Smith, 1998) have raised public concerns about the safety of modern healthcare.
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- The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 257 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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