Αντιπαλότητες και ιατρικά λάθη

 Διάβασα μια ενδιαφέρουσα μελέτη, που διαπιστώνει ότι οι καλές ή κακές σχέσεις και οι αντιπαλότητες που αναπτύσσονται στους γιατρούς που υπηρετούν σε ένα τμήμα μπορεί να επηρεάσουν τη συχνότητα ιατρικών λαθών και την έκβαση των ασθενών τους! Όχι ότι πρέπει να μας εκπλήσσει κάτι τέτοιο, απλά αυτοί που έκαναν τη μελέτη ισχυρίζονται ότι το απέδειξαν.

Diversity in hospital teams and patient outcomes

Worldwide, medical errors result in 1 million deaths annually, by some estimates. However, little attention has been paid to how complex group dynamics drive medical errors. Ren Li et al. examined how patient outcomes are affected by divisions in hospital team diversity—a phenomenon called faultlines, which can occur when multiple attributes, such as gender and race of unit members, align and divide a unit into homogeneous subgroups. The authors analyzed survey data collected from 1,102 employees across 38 clinical units at a large medical center in the United States and obtained outcome measures for 4,138 patients who were discharged from those units. The staff were less civil toward each other when strong faultlines formed, and the lack of civility was linked to higher medical error and death rates of patients in those units. The authors found that a 10% increase in unit incivility was associated with up to an 8.87% increase in healthcare-associated infection rates and up to a 10.59% increase in mortality rates. However, patients in units with strong collaborative cultures for managing conflicts experienced fewer adverse events and were less likely to die, regardless of strong faultlines. According to the authors, the findings suggest that training on collaborative conflict culture can help hospitals provide optimal patient care. — J.W.

Από το περιοδικό PNAS.