Human error and physicians' civil responsibility: a cross-sectional study in Bushehr hospitals

Background:  Medical errors are one of the issues related to civil liability. Medical error is either an unintended action that occurs due to negligence or an operation that does not lead to the desired medical results. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between human error and physicians' civil responsibility in Bushehr hospitals. Methodology: This study was applied research which was conducted using a descriptive survey. The statistical population of this research consisted of physicians and nurses working at Bushehr hospitals. Out of the population, 140 individuals were selected using a convenient random sampling technique. An eighteen-item questionnaire was used to collect the data. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using the Cronbach's alpha test was higher than 0.7 for the components under study. Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to analyze the distribution of data. Result: There was a direct and significant relationship between nurses' negligence, surgeons' diagnosis failure, factors such as lack of effective communications between the medical staff at the time of delivering the patient to the operating room and other equipment-related errors, nurses' and patients' fatigue (P< 5% for all). Conclusion: Increase in factors like Nurses' negligence and surgeons' diagnosis failure, Lack of effective communications between the medical staff at the time of delivering the patient to the operating room, lack of patient briefing, other equipment-related errors and Nurses' fatigue, would lead to an increase in the severity of medical errors