Medical error in dermatology practice: Development of a classification system to drive priority setting in patient safety efforts

Patient safety in dermatologic surgery

“…36 A recent survey of 150 dermatologists also revealed WSS to be the most frequent serious error encountered in their practice, with 21 instances reported. 2 To address these potential errors, JCAHO instituted the universal protocol in 2004, 37 consisting of a preprocedure verification process, marked procedure site, and time out before beginning a procedure. Despite the observance of universal protocol procedures, a 2006 study of 25 nonspine WSSs reported to a malpractice carrier between 1985 and 2004 revealed instances of WSS that still would have occurred.…”

“…2 Labeling errors include applying specimen labels with the wrong patient information, site description, or submitting physician information. Accompanying pathology requisition forms may also be mismatched with specimens or contain inaccurate and incomplete information.…”

“…2 The 150 respondents were asked to describe their most recent and most serious errors, with the majority of mistakes categorized as assessment, intervention, or administrative problems. Of the 10 most frequently reported serious errors, 5 directly involved dermatologic surgery (Table I), with 4 others conceivably occurring in the perioperative period (ie, an incorrect clinical diagnosis, a delayed response to a test, a prescribing error, or a problem reporting results to a physician).…”

Error Avoidance in Dermatologic Surgery

“…The majority of dermatologic specimen errors occur along the biopsy pathway. These include incorrect patient or anatomical site information on the bottle or request forms, missing specimens, and failure of the results to be seen by the dermatologist or relayed to the patient [22]. Fortunately, specimen errors are rare.…”

Learning from mistakes: errors in approaches to melanoma and the urgent need for updated national guidelines

“…12 Few comprehensive reports have addressed errors in the management of melanoma (Table 1), and most of the data available are derived from reviews of malpractice complaints and single case reports. 5,10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] To date, there is no accepted classification system for errors in dermatology or specifically related to melanoma. Publications addressing errors in melanoma detection and follow-up are important because of their huge potential to increase awareness about the most vulnerable aspects of diagnosis and treatment, as well as from the perspective of healthcare economics in terms of cost reductions.…”