Much of the attention, rightly so, is on patients whenever a medical mistake is made.
But the toll it takes on doctors can be significant. I’ve often referred to the statistic, for instance, that 10 percent of doctors who are sued for medical malpractice contemplate suicide.
In a recent column in The New York Times, Pauline Chen examines how doctors fare after making a mistake. And the answer is, not good. In effect, “each of us was only one misstep away from that lonely and vicious cycle of errors that could unexpectedly and irrevocably spiral out of control.”
That’s frightening.
With all the attention today being focused on medical errors, one has to realize that a goal of zero mistakes is not feasible. Consequently, “you can’t go through training without making an error unless you are not taking care of patients,” and the stress of trying to do so builds up, leading to burnout and depression.
And when you consider the fact that clinicians who are depressed are twice as likely to make a medical mistake, it’s to everyone’s benefit that we better support doctors when the inevitable error occurs.
Related posts:
- Is the focus on patient safety creating a generation of indecisive doctors who practice without confidence?
- Is reducing medical errors similar to improving transportation safety?
- Medical errors: Impact on physicians
- Medical mistakes
- How poor physician communication leads to medical mistakes
- Op-ed: Why doctors still balk at electronic medical records
- Physician attire and malpractice
{ 4 comments }
Guns don’t kill people. Doctors kill people.
/sarc
Instead of contemplating suicide, doctors should remember that there are various non-clinical career opportunities they may wish to consider. Many doctors don’t realize their options. As a result, they become prone to serious depression and suicidal ideation.
It is interesting that this is only the third entry on this topic. The other 2 are negative comments toward physicians who have compassion and empathy for others but not toward ourselves or our colleges. “Physician heal thyself” means to me not that we are broken and should be fixed but that we need to draw VERY clear boundries for all of those who would suck the life out of us to understand. What works for me is my circle of privacy. If you come within my circle uninvited I will beat on you until you are black and blue and you WILL leave me alone.
wow, 3 comments and 2 of them negative. this really does seem to be an us vs them thing. we as physician are held responsible not only when we make mistakes, but also for trying to save others from their mistakes.
I hope the people commenting to this see this for what it is. As a physician, I am constantly responsible to not make a mistake, and if I do, watch out, I can be sued and lose everything. Oh, and lets not forget I get pain, on average 20 percent of what my services are worth.
Can I expand this to the people who I deal with in my daily life?
when the mechanic makes a mistake, or is not able to fix my 60 year old jalopy which I have trashed, abused, driven offroad on bald tires, never having changed the oil or put air in the tires is unable to make it purr like a showroom new porsche, can I only pay him 20 percent of the bill and then sue him because he was not able to make my mistreated abused car run like new?
If I go to burger king, and order a whopper with cheese and no tomatoes, and they put tomatoes on it, can I cry foul? can I sue them for making a mistake, and disturbing my kwan for the day? on, and I only want to pay 20 cents on the dollar for the cost, BTW.
If you apply the system that physicians work under every day, you will soon see how patently ridiculous it is is.. would you work under those conditions?
oh, and as an er physician, most of my patient get comment cards from the hospital, asking if I did my job well, was polite and served them appropriately. I have been to restaurants, shows, theatres,a nd have NEVER been asked if I have been served well, left happy,a nd thought the staff I interacted with was doing a good job.
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