Risk management and human factors

Evidence has accumulated to demonstrate that the relative risk of a legal claim being made against a medical practitioner is related to a range of factors including(1) communications failures, (2) continuing professional development, and (3) failures of the systems that are in place to support and assist the medical practitioner in their medical practice (Goodwin 2000). Conversely, research has demonstrated no significant difference in the relative risk of litigation between trauma surgery and elective surgery (Stewart et al. 2005). Together, these findings suggest that the risk of litigation is associated with Human Factors and System Safety issues, rather than the complexity or the urgency of the practitioner’s work. Moreover, if risk is not increased with urgent elective procedures, then patient perception and expectation may play an important role, because discussion and the depth of communication might be expected to be less for trauma and acute patients, compared with elective situations where time for explanation should theorctically be greater.