Institute of Health Systems Research 2008: MEDICAL ERRORS IN MOH PRIMARY CARE CLINICS

MEDICAL ERRORS IN MOH PRIMARY CARE CLINICS

By Khoo EM, Sararaks S, Lee W K, Sebrina S, Liew SM, Azah AS, Rohana l, Cheong AT, Hanafiah AN, Yusof Ml, Lidwina EA, Maimunah AH, Kalsom M, Azman AB. Medical errors in MOH primary care clinics.  A Project under the Letter Of Intent for lmproving Patient Safety. [PC 2; PS 9/2008 (I13)]. Kuala Lumpur. Institute for Health Systems
Research 2008. (full pdf document available...)

KEY FINDINGS:
- A high percentage of medical errors,
- 57.2% occur in primary healthcare sites.
- 93% of medical errors were deemed preventable.
- The majority of medical errors are related to medication
- A lack of knowledge and skills of MOH staff has been shown to contribute to medical errors.
- There is a need to improve the quality of healthcare services provided by MOH health clinics.

Detailed findings
+ 39.8% (Cl 26.6-53.0 %) of errors were likely to cause serious morbidity or mortality.
+ 93.4% (Cl 33.6-100%) of errors had strong evidence for preventability.
+ 29.0% (Cl 19.5-38.6%) Of errors were due to some form of missing documentation  whereby:
       - 54.7% (Cl 43.3-65.6%) had no documentation of physical examination.
       - 49.5% (Cl 38.8-60.2 %) had no documentation of history.
       - 43.0% (Cl 27.6-55.1%) had no documentation of problem or diagnosis.
       - 22.6% (Cl 12.8-32.4 %) of errors were due to illegibility.

- Medical assistants saw 81% of total records assessed

Below is the hotfile site for downloading the file, a little slow if you do not want the premium method of download or upload of files. Courtesy of Sifu, Madviruz, my UM class of 1979 pc wizard!

 

Medical Errors in MOH Primary Care Clinics.pdf document