Medical Errors Result in Physician Stress

According to a recent statement issued by Joint Commission Resources, a study has indicated that physicians experience stress after medical error events. The study was published in the August 2007 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. According to the study's results, medical errors cause physicians to suffer from severe emotional, and job-related, stress. The study brings to light the need for psychological resources to be made available to health care professionals after a medical error has occurred.

The study involved more than 3,100 physicians from the United States and Canada. The study researched which physicians are affected the most from medical errors and what the best support methods are to help the physicians with their stress. Ninety-two percent of the physicians involved in the study reported that they had experienced a near, minor, or serious medical error.

The research study was published under the title, "The Emotional Impact of Medical Errors on Practicing Physicians in the United States and Canada." It is the first large scale study that demonstrated the negative effects that physicians experience due to medical errors. The results of the study pointed out that it does not take a serious medical error to occur in order for physicians to experience a negative impact; minor mistakes and near miss medical errors also lead to physicians to experience stress. The study notes that the level of stress increased with the seriousness of the error.

The results of the study also found that after a medical error 61% of the physicians experienced increased anxiety regarding future errors, 44% of the physicians experienced loss of confidence, 42% of the physicians experienced sleeping difficulties, 42% of the physicians experienced feeling of reduced job satisfactions, and 13% of the physicians felt that their reputation had been harmed.