[Dealing with error in cardiology].
A commonly used definition describes an error as a harmful or potentially harmful occurrence for the patient. Although over the last years the evolution of medicine has been characterized by remarkable technological advances, the percentage of errors in clinical practice has not changed since the '40s. In this setting, the aim of our review is to assess how errors develop in real life in modern cardiology and how they can be identified early, corrected, and possibly prevented. In our opinion, the more a healthcare system (i.e., a cardiology ward or a hospital) is capable of facing its error, the safer it is. In our daily practice, errors can be distinguished in "clinical errors" (mainly related to knowledge) and "system errors" (mainly referring to healthcare organization; i.e., the integrated cardiac network). Bearing in mind the high frequency and consequences, cardiologists should consider errors as among the main determinants of quality of care, which the whole team has to deal with. Time and resources should be spent to identify the best approaches to cope with errors, tailored for each cardiology team. Ultimately, the care of a patient with heart disease should be viewed holistically and not as the afinalistic sum of procedures, no matter how technically developed.
Tarquini
Roberto
R
Dipartimento di Medicina Interna, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, Università degli Studi, Firenze. rtarquini@unifi.it
Lazzeri
Chiara
C
Gensini
Gian Franco
GF
D016507:Cardiology Service, Hospital; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008318:Malpractice; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012308:Risk Management