Reporting Medical Errors to Improve Patient Safety A Survey of Physicians in Teaching Hospitals.

The article offers a discussion on a survey concerning the necessity of reporting medical errors for the improvement of the patients' safety. It is noted that the although the data collection on medical errors is significant, the factors which affect the error reporting by physicians are poorly understood. In line with this an investigation on the reporting of actual errors was conducted through a survey of resident physicians and faculty has been conducted in the midwest, mid-Atlantic, as well as in the northeast region of the United States. The result shows that the participants are inclined to report the hypothetical causes of errors, but only few actually had reported an error.