Attitudes after unintended injury during treatment: a survey of doctors and patients

Objective To compare the attitudes of doctors and patients toward the discl osure of information after adverse medical events. Design Cross-sectional q uestionnaire survey. 8 Setting Ophthalmology department of an outer London hospital. Subjects 246 patients attending one ophthalmic outpatient clinic during a 5-week period and 48 ophthalmologists. Main outcome measure Propor tion of each group who believed that patients should be informed about the occurrence of an adverse event and its potential future complications follo wing elective ophthalmic surgery. Results Most patients (226/246, 91.8%) be lieved that a patient should be informed of an adverse event. Fewer ophthal mologists (29/48, 60.5%, P<0.001; odds ratio 7.4 [95% CI 3.7-14.3]) shared this belief. The majority of patients (200/246, 88.5%) believed that a pati ent should be as fully informed as possible about the event and possible fu ture complications, but this belief was shared by a minority of ophthalmolo gists (16/48, 33.3%, P<0.001; odds ratio 8.7 [95% CI 4.7-15.9]). Conclusion After an adverse medical event, there is a discrepancy between the amount of information that patients wish to be given and that which physicians fee l is appropriate.