title: Getting doctors to report medical errors: project DISCLOSE.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite the number of patient safety incidents that occur in hospitals, physicians currently may not have the ideal incident reporting tools for easy disclosure. A study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of a simplified paper incident reporting process for internal medicine physicians on uncovering patient safety incidents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine internal medicine attending physicians were instructed to incorporate the use of a simplified paper incident reporting tool (DISCLOSE) into daily patient rounds during a three-month period. All physicians were surveyed at the conclusion of the three months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with physician reporting via the hospital's traditional incident reports from the same time period, a higher number (98 incidents versus 37; a 2.6-fold increase) of incidents were uncovered using the DISCLOSE reporting tool in a larger number of error categories (58 versus 14, a 4.1-fold increase). When reviewed and classified with a five-point harm scale, 41% of events were judged to have reached patients but not caused harm, 33% to have resulted in temporary harm, and 9% of reports, though not considered events, were to indicate a "risky situation." Surveyed physicians were more satisfied with the process of submitting incident reports using the new DISCLOSE tool.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A simplified incident reporting process at the point of care generated a larger number and breadth of physician disclosed error categories, and increased physician satisfaction with the process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Temple University Hospital, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Emmanuel S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Darilyn V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Moyer
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Couturie
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gaughan
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Shulkin
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005568:Forms and Records Control / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D015143:Philadelphia; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods*; D014342:Truth Disclosure