General practitioners’ attitudes toward reporting and learning from adverse events: Results from a survey

Abstract

Objective. To investigate GPs’ attitudes to and willingness to report and learn from adverse events and to study how a reporting system should function. Design. Survey. Setting. General practice in Denmark. Main outcome measures. GPs’ attitudes to exchange of experience with colleagues and others, and circumstances under which such exchange is accepted. Subjects. A structured questionnaire sent to 1198 GPs of whom 61% responded. Results. GPs had a positive attitude towards discussing adverse events in the clinic with colleagues and staff and in their continuing medical education groups. The GPs had a positive attitude to reporting adverse events to a database if the system granted legal and administrative immunity to reporters. The majority preferred a reporting system located at a research institute. Conclusion. GPs have a very positive attitude towards discussing and reporting adverse events. This project encourages further research and pilot projects testing concrete reporting systems.