Analysis of 10 years of medical errors investigated by the Poznan University Forensic Medicine Department

Abstract

At the turn of 2005 and 2006, Polish emergency medical service underwent profound changes. Emergency medical service teams (EMS) were divided into P-type, which included only paramedics, and S-type, which consisted of paramedics and a physician (Statue from 8th September 2006 about State Medical Rescue). This study aimed to determine which elements of the medical rescue system in Poland most often occurred, what kind of errors they were, and how often they resulted in a patient's death. This article analyzed 147 opinions issued by the Forensic Medicine Department at Poznań University of Medical Sciences in 2005-2015 that concerned medical errors in emergency medicine commissioned by judicial authorities from all over Poland. The study excluded opinions on the areas covered by the jurisdiction of the Appellate Prosecutor's Office in Poznań and the District Prosecutor's Office in Ostrów Wlkp., which is about 85% of the country's territory. The results of the analyses identified the Hospital Emergency Departments as the place where the most significant number of errors of all types had been committed, which were not particularly surprising. The results concerning mistakes made by the EMS teams seemed much more significant. They showed that errors in the P-type ambulances (i.e., without a doctor in the rescue team) had occurred much more often, including those resulting in the patient's death. It can therefore be concluded that the higher level of preparation of the emergency medical team members translates into a higher level of patient safety. However, some scientific reports indicate that this does not have to be the case. The most significant limitation of this study lies in the source of the analyzed data. Opinions of the Department of Forensic Medicine in Poznań in cases concerning errors in emergency medicine reflect only a tiny percentage of medical errors.