1 results
34 - Disclosure of medical error
-
- By Philip C. Hébert, Bioethicist and Director of the Clinical Ethics Centre University of Toronto, Canada, Alex V. Levin, Associate Professor University of Toronto, Canada, Gerald Robertson, Faculty of Law University of Alberta
- Edited by Peter A. Singer, University of Toronto, A. M. Viens, University of Oxford
-
- Book:
- The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics
- Published online:
- 30 October 2009
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2008, pp 257-265
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
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.
![](/core/cambridge-core/public/images/lazy-loader.gif)