Abstract
Dermatologists perform more cutaneous surgical procedures than any other medical specialty, ranging from routine biopsies to advanced skin cancer treatments. As a result, dermatologists and trainees face a higher likelihood than other specialists of encountering medical errors during surgery that may lead to dilemmas of personal responsibility, disclosure, or omission. Medical ethics obligates physicians to abide by non-maleficence and to respect patient autonomy. Mistakes happen - to err is human - but it is how physicians prepare for and react to these adverse events that provides a foundation for a healthy patient-physician relationship. This chapter highlights the ethical considerations, recommendations for response, and preventative safety recommendations for adverse event scenarios in dermatologic surgery.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahn CS, Davis SA, Dabade TS, Williford PM, Feldman SR. Noncosmetic skin-related procedures performed in the United States: an analysis of national ambulatory medical care survey data from 1995 to 2010. Dermatologic surgery: official publication for American Society for Dermatologic Surgery [et al]. 2013;39(12):1912–21.
Perlis CS, Campbell RM, Perlis RH, Malik M, Dufresne RG Jr. Incidence of and risk factors for medical malpractice lawsuits among Mohs surgeons. Dermatol Surg. 2006;32(1):79–83.
Institute of Medicine. In: Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, editors. To err is human: building a safer health system. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2000. p. 312.
Grober ED, Bohnen JMA. Defining medical error. Can J Surg. 2005;48(1):39–44.
Birkhauer J, Gaab J, Kossowsky J, Hasler S, Krummenacher P, Werner C, et al. Trust in the health care professional and health outcome: a meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2017;12(2):e0170988.
Mazor KM, Reed GW, Yood RA, Fischer MA, Baril J, Gurwitz JH. Disclosure of medical errors: what factors influence how patients respond? J Gen Intern Med. 2006;21(7):704–10.
Gallagher TH, Waterman AD, Ebers AG, Fraser VJ, Levinson W. Patients' and physicians' attitudes regarding the disclosure of medical errors. J Am Med Assoc. 2003;289(8):1001–7.
Ozeke O, Ozeke V, Coskun O, Budakoglu II. Second victims in health care: current perspectives. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2019;10:593–603.
Vercler CJ, Buchman SR, Chung KC. Discussing harm-causing errors with patients: an ethics primer for plastic surgeons. Ann Plast Surg. 2015;74(2):140–4.
Gallagher TH, Waterman AD, Garbutt JM, Kapp JM, Chan DK, Dunagan WC, et al. US and Canadian physicians' attitudes and experiences regarding disclosing errors to patients. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(15):1605–11.
Verbeek J, Basnet P. Incidence of sharps injuries in surgical units, a meta-analysis and meta-regression. Am J Infect Control. 2019;47(4):448–55.
Levitt JO, Sobanko JF. Safety in office-based dermatologic surgery. Cham, Switzerland: Springer; 2015.
Watson AJ, Redbord K, Taylor JS, Shippy A, Kostecki J, Swerlick R. Medical error in dermatology practice: development of a classification system to drive priority setting in patient safety efforts. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2013;68(5):729–37.
Agency for Healthcare Research. Never Events 2019 [updated January 2019. Available from: https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primers/primer/3/Never-Events.
Alam M, Lee A, Ibrahimi OA, Kim N, Bordeaux J, Chen K, et al. A multistep approach to improving biopsy site identification in dermatology: physician, staff, and patient roles based on a Delphi consensus. JAMA Dermatol. 2014;150(5):550–8.
Gardner AK, Lim G, Minard CG, Guffey D, Pillow MT. A cross-specialty examination of resident error disclosure and communication skills using simulation. J Grad Med Educ. 2018;10(4):438–41.
Charles R, Hood B, Derosier JM, Gosbee JW, Li Y, Caird MS, et al. How to perform a root cause analysis for workup and future prevention of medical errors: a review. Patient Saf Surg. 2016;10:20.
Mann-Salinas EA, Joyner DD, Guymon CH, Ward CL, Rathbone CR, Jones JA, et al. Comparison of decontamination methods for human skin grafts. Journal of burn care & research: official publication of the American Burn Association. 2015;36(6):636–40.
Hodkinson K. The need to know—therapeutic privilege: a way forward. Health Care Anal. 2013;21(2):105–29.
Mayor S. Explaining and apologizing to patients after errors does not increase lawsuits, finds study. BMJ (Clinical research ed). 2017;359:j4536.
Mello MM, Kachalia A, Roche S, Niel MV, Buchsbaum L, Dodson S, et al. Outcomes in two Massachusetts hospital systems give reason for optimism about communication-and-resolution programs. Health affairs (Project Hope). 2017;36(10):1795–803.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zullo, S.W., Sobanko, J.F. (2021). Medical Errors, Disclosure, and Safety in Dermatologic Surgery. In: Bercovitch, L., Perlis, C.S., Stoff, B.K., Grant-Kels, J.M. (eds) Dermatoethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56861-0_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56861-0_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56860-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56861-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)