Street Richard L, Petrocelli John V, Amroze Azraa, Bergelt Corinna, Murphy Margaret, Wieting J Michael, Mazor Kathleen M
Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
J Patient Exp. 2020 Dec;7(6):1247-1254. doi: 10.1177/2374373520925270. Epub 2020 May 26.
Communication breakdowns among clinicians, patients, and family members can lead to medical errors, yet effective communication may prevent such mistakes. This investigation examined patients' and family members' experiences where they believed communication failures contributed to medical errors or where effective communication prevented a medical error ("close calls"). The study conducted a thematic analysis of open-ended responses to an online survey of patients' and family members' past experiences with medical errors or close calls. Of the 93 respondents, 56 (60%) provided stories of medical errors, and the remaining described close calls. Two predominant themes emerged in medical error stories that were attributed to health care providers-information inadequacy (eg, delayed, inaccurate) and not listening to or being dismissive of a patient's or family member's concerns. In stories of close calls, a patient's or family member's proactive communication (eg, being assertive, persistent) most often "saved the day." The findings highlight the importance of encouraging active patient/family involvement in a patient's medical care to prevent errors and of improving systems to provide meaningful information in a timely manner.
临床医生、患者和家庭成员之间的沟通障碍可能导致医疗差错，而有效的沟通或许可以预防此类错误。本调查研究了患者和家庭成员认为沟通失误导致医疗差错或有效沟通避免医疗差错（“险些发生的差错”）的经历。该研究对患者和家庭成员过去医疗差错或险些发生的差错经历的在线调查开放式回答进行了主题分析。在93名受访者中，56人（60%）讲述了医疗差错的故事，其余人描述了险些发生的差错。医疗差错故事中出现了两个主要主题，这些差错归因于医疗服务提供者——信息不足（如延迟、不准确）以及不听从或轻视患者或家庭成员的担忧。在险些发生的差错故事中，患者或家庭成员的积极沟通（如坚定自信、坚持不懈）最常“挽救局面”。研究结果凸显了鼓励患者/家属积极参与患者医疗护理以预防差错以及改进系统以便及时提供有意义信息的重要性。
