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Recent emphasis on identification of medical errors, including a shift to anonymous reporting, is intended to improve patient safety, but are we still missing preventable adverse events or errors? To find out, Canadian researchers surveyed a convenience sample of 201 mentally competent adults about adverse events and potential mistakes made during their stays at a single emergency department. In telephone interviews conducted within 24 hours after ED discharge, trained medical students asked a validated, structured series of questions; interviews were repeated at 3 to 7 days after discharge in 143 patients (71%).
An ED physician analyzed responses and categorized patient-reported incidents as “adverse events” (unintended injury or complicati…