Factors Affecting Non-Reporting Of Medical Errors in Cardiac Surgery Departments of Iran: A Qualitative Study from the Perspective of Cardiac Surgeons

Abstract

Background and purpose: The increase in medical errors, in addition to the loss of life and money, is responsible for a main cause of avoidable deaths, which doubles the importance of the issue. This study was conducted to explain the reasons for non-reporting of medical errors in Iranian heart surgery departments from the point of view of heart surgeons.

Materials and methods: This was a qualitative study conducted in 2023. In order to conduct the interviews, the snowball method was used to obtain a sample population with maximum diversity. The criteria for selecting people to enter the study included at least 5 years of experience as a cardiac surgery specialist in the heart surgery departments of public, social security, and private hospitals, as well as having sufficient experience and knowledge in the field of medical errors. For used to evaluate the quality of the results using MAXQDA software version 2022.

Findings: A total of 30 interviewees were included. The findings of this study revealed five main themes: legal, organizational culture, financial, regulatory, and managerial factors with 5, 3, 3, 5, and 5 sub-themes, respectively. The most important reasons for not reporting the occurrence of errors from heart surgeons' point of views were lack of trust, fear of causing trouble for colleagues, and an ineffective error reporting system.

Conclusion: In order to increase error reporting tendency, hospital managers and officials should provide conditions where surgeons can trust them and report errors to prevent further problems without fear of being punished or reprimanded.