Study: Communication Breakdowns Lead to Hospital Errors

A new study suggests that minor miscommunications may contribute to hospital errors, even if preventive measures are taken. Operating-room and critical-care nurses were surveyed by their professional organization and VitalSmarts, a global training and consulting firm, in order to determine how hospital errors take place.

Eighty-five percent of 2,383 nurses surveyed said they’d been in a situation where measures put in place to reduce errors, including checklists and other safety protocols. However, 58 percent of the nurses said they’d been in situations where it was “either unsafe to speak up or they were unable to get others to listen.”

In a separate survey that zeroed in on types of communication breakdown, 84% of 4,325 nurses reported working with people who take shortcuts that could lead to treatment errors, such as not washing hands for long enough. Thirty-four percent said that shortcuts led to near accidents, while 26 percent admitted they caused harm to patients. Around 19 percent attributed incompetence or lack of required skills to harmful mistakes.

The survey also included nurse managers, 41 percent of whom included in the survey said they’d spoken to the person taking dangerous shortcuts, 28 percent to those feared incompetent and 35 percent to those whose disrespect has the greatest negative impact.

Potential solutions offered up by study authors included developing a workplace environment where co-workers speak out about concerns and hold each other accountable for safe health practices.

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