Physician and Public Opinions on Quality of Health Care and the Problem of Medical Errors

Abstract

There appears to be widespread concern among physicians regarding medical errors, but only a minority in this survey believed that the problem is as significant as the Institute of Medicine and the public believe it to be. Our results suggest that physicians see several barriers to successful error reduction including difficulty defining errors, the need for more training in handling errors, and fear of malpractice litigation. Addressing these barriers will be a necessary step to increasing physician support for many of the changes proposed by the Institute of Medicine.