• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.68-82
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• 2017

Objectives: We performed a systematic review to assess and aggregate the available evidence on the frequency, expected effects, obstacles, and facilitators of disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI). Methods: We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for this systematic review and searched PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library for English articles published between 1990 and 2014. Two authors independently conducted the title screening and abstract review. Ninety-nine articles were selected for full-text reviews. One author extracted the data and another verified them. Results: There was considerable variation in the reported frequency of DPSI among medical professionals. The main expected effects of DPSI were decreased intention of the general public to file medical lawsuits and punish medical professionals, increased credibility of medical professionals, increased intention of patients to revisit and recommend physicians or hospitals, higher ratings of quality of care, and alleviation of feelings of guilt among medical professionals. The obstacles to DPSI were fear of medical lawsuits and punishment, fear of a damaged professional reputation among colleagues and patients, diminished patient trust, the complexity of the situation, and the absence of a patient safety culture. However, the factors facilitating DPSI included the creation of a safe environment for reporting patient safety incidents, as well as guidelines and education for DPSI. Conclusions: The reported frequency of the experience of the general public with DPSI was somewhat lower than the reported frequency of DPSI among medical professionals. Although we identified various expected effects of DPSI, more empirical evidence from real cases is required.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.81-111
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• 2018

Recently in Korea, public interest about patient safety has increased because patient safety incidents occurred continuously. In addition, as the way of coping with medical personnel and medical institutions after occurrence of patient safety incident became controversial, the necessity of introducing apology law and disclosure law was raised. We analyzed the contents of apology law and disclosure law in U.S.A and critically examined the legislative movements in Korea. First, the Apology law requires that a medical personnel provide apology, consolation, sympathy to the patient for discomfort, pain, damage or death, and that the expression of apology shall be inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability in civil action or administrative proceeding. The Apology law is divided into 'full apology law' and 'partial apology law' depending on whether mistake, error, fault, liability, and legal liability shall be inadmissible. Meanwhile, Disclosure law enforces or voluntarily enforces the law to communicate with the patient regarding the disclosure of the incident, the cause of incident, the compensation plan, and the measures to prevent the recurrence in the adverse incident that serious harm to the patient. In Korea, the concern about patient safety incidents has been amplified, and as the importance of communication between the medical personnel and patient has been recognized, the revision bill for the "Patient Safety Act", which adopted the U.S.A apology or disclosure law, was submitted to the National Assembly. The purpose of this study was to critically review the contents of the revised legislation based on the analysis of the apology law and disclosure law in U.S.A. and to provide implications for future legislative direction.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.37-54
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this preliminary study was to identify the nurses' perception regarding disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI) and to evaluate the effectiveness of education for DPSI. Methods: DPSI education was conducted for nurses majoring in clinical nurse specialist at an university. Before and after the education, the nurses made a questionnaire to evaluate the perception of DPSI. The questionnaires were divided into four categories: first, overall perception of the DPSI; second, recognition evaluation of the DPSI using hypothetical case, third, opinion on legal and nonlegal measures for facilitating the DPSI; and fourth, socio-demographic factors. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was performed on the DPSI questionnaire response to compare the perceptions before and after the education. Results: A total of 10 nurses participated in the education. DPSI education showed the possibility of improving the overall perception, necessity, effect, obstacle, and promotion method of DPSI, although there were also several responses where there was no statistical significance. In particular, DPSI education led to statistically significance change in the perception of obstacles for DPSI. For example, the number of respondents who agreed to the item "DPSI will increase the incidence of medical lawsuits." was 7 before education but decreased to 3 after education (P-value: .025) Furthermore, nurses' perception of DPSI from this study was generally positive regardless of education. Conclusion:In the future, it will be necessary to carry out DPSI education and training and to evaluate its effectiveness for more nurses.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 2022

Purpose:We investigated physicians' responses to a series of clinical vignettes consisting of patient safety incidents, with and without disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI). Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted to investigate physicians' responses to the DPSI via online communities of physicians, and additional participants were recruited using a snowballing sampling method. We evaluated physicians' responses to the DPSI using eight hypothetical scenarios (HS) from the following perspectives: thoughts regarding medical errors, revisiting the physician, recommendation, lawsuit, criminal prosecution, trust score, and compensation amounts. We used the chi-square test to evaluate the overall differences in response rates among the scenarios. Statistical analyses were performed using the Student's t-test to compare the trust scores and compensation amounts. Results: A total of 910 physicians participated in this survey. An overall comparison of trust scores among HS showed that HS 1 (unclear medical errors, minor harm, and DPSI) had the highest trust score. In contrast, in the opposite scenario, HS 8 (clear medical errors, major harm, and DPSI not conducted) received the lowest scores. Cases with minor harm to patients (HS 1, 2, 5, and 6) showed lower compensation amounts than the others (HS 3, 4, 7, and 8). Physicians were more likely to think of situations with DPSI as not having medical errors (53.1% vs. 55.2%). In addition, the scenarios with DPSI were evaluated favorably in terms of intention to revisit, recommend, suit, and engage in criminal proceedings. Physicians showed higher trust scores (6.2 vs 5.4) and gave lower compensation amounts ($27.7 million vs $28.1 million), although there was no significant difference in terms of compensation amounts to the physician conducting DPSI. Conclusion: Our study showed overall positive perceptions regarding DPSI among Korean physicians.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.44-56
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• 2024

Purpose : This study sought to explore intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' perceptions regarding the disclosure of patient safety incidents (DPSI) and identify the relationship between the perception of DPSI and communication barriers. Methods : This study used a descriptive research design. A total of 110 ICU nurses from a tertiary hospital were surveyed online between September 14 and October 5, 2022. The mean DPSI score ranged between 1.0 and 4.0, with a higher score indicating a higher perception of DPSI. Results : The mean score for ICU nurses' perceptions of DPSI was 2.92 (SD=0.37). Among the characteristics of ICU nurses, differences were observed in perceptions of DPSI according to gender, age, total work experience, and ICU work experience. Communication barriers among ICU nurses were negatively correlated with negative results as a sub-factor of perceptions of DPSI. Ambiguity in the nurse's position, lack of confidence, differences in perspectives with patients, and inadequate nurse-patient relationships as sub-factors of communication barriers exhibited a negative correlation with negative results as a sub-factor of perceptions of DPSI. Conclusions : ICU nurses' perceptions of DPSI and the sub-factors related to communication barriers are negatively related to DPSI. To improve ICU nurses' perceptions, open and non-punitive circumstances, staff education, practical guidelines, and support systems are required.