Communication overload may well lead to errors, but this is yet to be firmly established
Although stories of misunderstandings, ambiguity, amnesia and lack of cooperation abound, there have been few studies of communication between healthcare professionals. Recently, the topic has been given new impetus as communication problems have been identified as a major contributory factor to the occurrence of errors and adverse events.1
The full article is accessible to AMA members and paid subscribers. Login to read more or purchase a subscription now.
Please note: institutional and Research4Life access to the MJA is now provided through Wiley Online Library.
- 1 Clinical Risk Unit, Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
- 2 Center for Safety in Emergency Care, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
- 1. Thomas EJ, Brennan TA. Errors and adverse events in medicine: an overview. In: Vincent C, ed. Clinical risk management: enhancing patient safety. London, UK: BMJ Books; 2001.
- 2. Coiera EC, Jayasuriya R, Hardy J, et al. Communication loads on clinical staff in the emergency department. Med J Aust 2002; 176: 415-418. <eMJA full text>
- 3. Coiera E, Tombs V. Communication behaviours in a hospital setting: an observational study. BMJ 1998; 316: 673-676.
- 4. Chisholm CD, Collison EK, Nelson DR, Cordell WH. Emergency department work place interruptions: are emergency physicians multi-tasking or interrupt driven? Acad Emerg Med 2000; 7: 1239-1243.
- 5. Helmreich RL. On error management: lessons from aviation. BMJ 2000; 320: 781-785.
- 6. Helmreich RL, Merritt AC. Culture at work in aviation and medicine. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1998.
- 7. Sexton JB, Thomas EJ, Helmreich RL. Error, stress, and teamwork in medicine and aviation: cross sectional surveys. BMJ 2000; 320: 745-749.
- 8. Gosbee J. Communication among health professionals. BMJ 1998; 316: 642.
- 9. Reason J. Human error. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1990.
- 10. Parker J, Coiera E. Improving clinical communication: a view from psychology. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2000; 7: 453-461.
- 11. Weick K, Sutclifffe K. Managing the unexpected. Assuring high performance in an age of complexity. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2001.
- 12. Coiera E. When conversation is better than computation. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2000; 7: 277-286.
- 13. Mamlin JJ, Baker DH. Combined time-motion and work sampling study in a general medicine clinic. Med Care 1973; 9: 449-459.
- 14. Hutchins E. Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
- 15. Vincent C, Taylor-Adams S, Stanhope N. Framework for analysing risk and safety in clinical medicine. BMJ 1998; 316: 1154-1157.
- 16. Cook RI, Woods DD. Operating at the sharp end: the complexity of human error. In: Bogner MS, ed. Human error in medicine. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994: 255-310.
- 17. Senders JW. Medical devices, medical errors, and medical accidents. In: Bogner MS, ed. Human error in medicine. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994: 159-177.