From the University of Texas - Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety, McGovern Medical School, Department of Family Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Nursing, Houston, Texas.
Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
J Patient Saf. 2021 Dec 1;17(8):e1145-e1151. doi: 10.1097/PTS.0000000000000451.
Patients and families report experiencing a multitude of harms from medical errors resulting in physical, emotional, and financial hardships. Little is known about the duration and nature of these harms and the type of support needed to promote patient and family healing after such events. We sought to describe the long-term impacts (LTIs) reported by patients and family members who experienced harmful medical events 5 or more years ago.
We performed a content analysis on 32 interviews originally conducted with 72 patients or family members about their views of the factors contributing to their self-reported harmful event. Interviews selected occurred 5 or more years after the harmful event and were grouped by time since event, 5 to 9 years (22 interviews) or 10 or more years (10 interviews) for analysis. We analyzed these interviews targeting spontaneous references of ongoing impacts experienced by the participants.
Participants collectively described the following four LTIs: psychological, social/behavioral, physical, and financial. Most cited psychological impacts with half-reporting ongoing anger and vivid memories. More than half reported ongoing physical impacts and one-third experienced ongoing financial impacts. Long-term social and behavioral impacts such as alterations in lifestyle, self-identity, and healthcare seeking behaviors were the most highly reported.
These patients and families experienced many profound LTIs after their harmful medical event. For some, these impacts evolved into secondary harms ongoing 10 years and more after the event. Our results draw attention to the persistent impacts patients and families may experience long after harmful events and the need for future research to understand and support affected patients and families.
患者和家属报告称，由于医疗失误导致身体、情感和经济困难，他们经历了多种伤害。对于这些伤害的持续时间和性质，以及在发生此类事件后促进患者和家庭康复所需的支持类型，知之甚少。我们试图描述 5 年或更长时间前经历过有害医疗事件的患者和家属报告的长期影响（LTIs）。
我们对最初与 72 名患者或家属进行的 32 次访谈进行了内容分析，这些访谈是关于他们对导致自我报告的有害事件的因素的看法。选择的访谈发生在有害事件发生 5 年或更长时间后，并按时间分组，即 5 至 9 年（22 次访谈）或 10 年或更长时间（10 次访谈）进行分析。我们针对参与者自发提及的正在经历的持续影响来分析这些访谈。
参与者集体描述了以下四种 LTIs：心理、社会/行为、身体和财务。大多数人提到了持续的心理影响，其中一半人报告说持续愤怒和记忆深刻。超过一半的人报告了持续的身体影响，三分之一的人经历了持续的财务影响。长期的社会和行为影响，如生活方式、自我认同和医疗保健寻求行为的改变，是报告最多的。
这些患者和家属在经历有害医疗事件后经历了许多深刻的 LTIs。对于一些人来说，这些影响在事件发生 10 年甚至更长时间后演变成了二次伤害。我们的研究结果引起了人们对患者和家属在有害事件发生后可能长期经历的持续影响的关注，需要进一步研究以了解和支持受影响的患者和家属。
