TY - JOUR T1 - Errors and adverse events in family medicine JF - Canadian Family Physician JO - Can Fam Physician SP - 270 LP - 276 VL - 53 IS - 2 AU - Sarah Jacobs AU - Maeve O’Beirne AU - Luz Palacios Derfiingher AU - Lucie Vlach AU - Walter Rosser AU - Neil Drummond Y1 - 2007/02/01 UR - http://www.cfp.ca/content/53/2/270.abstract N2 - OBJECTIVE To develop a taxonomy of errors derived solely from the content of error reports using Canadian data from the Primary Care International Study of Medical Errors. DESIGN Secondary analysis of data from a descriptive, cross-sectional, self-report survey. SETTING Community-based family medicine clinics. PARTICIPANTS Family physicians. INTERVENTION Implementation of an error-reporting system for family medicine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Type of error, type of causal factor. RESULTS Six types of errors or adverse events (administrative, communication, diagnostic, documentation, medication, and surgical or procedural) and 10 causal factors (case complexity, discontinuity of care, failure to follow protocol or accepted practice, fatigue, gap in knowledge, high workload, insufficient information on pharmacologic properties of medication, medication side effects, relationship dynamics, and structural problems) were identified. CONCLUSION Our taxonomy differs from that adopted by the Primary Care International Study of Medical Errors. We propose that our taxonomy is better suited for the purposes of family physicians reporting errors in Canada. ER -