{"title":"\"So You Made a Mistake\" - The Path Forward Through Surgical Pathology Errors by Extreme Ownership and a Focus on the Patient.","authors":"James S Lewis","doi":"10.1007/s12105-024-01706-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Our goal for medicine is to make zero mistakes, yet the reality is that mistakes are an unfortunate part of medical practice. And when it comes to surgical pathology, it is a special case where the diagnostic \"bottom line\" is provided starkly and directly for all to see in the final diagnosis of the pathology report. When this diagnosis is wrong, particularly when it has serious adverse consequences for the patient, the resulting physical, mental, and emotional effects on patient, provider, pathologist, and health care system can be extremely serious. Head and neck surgical pathology, based on large second review-type studies, is a subspecialty area with average rates of major diagnostic error, but with potential for severely negative impacts on patients. Studies have shown between 1% and 7% major error rates for head and neck practice. How then, as the pathologist, can we react to and manage things when we have made a serious diagnostic mistake? Through personal experience over more than two decades, the hard-won answer is through extreme ownership and a focus on the needs of the patients, who, in the words of William J. Mayo, should have their \"needs come first\". The emotional impact on us as pathologists and on the clinicians we work with should also be acknowledged and managed. This article will serve as a thorough and open examination of these mistake scenarios and, focusing specifically on diagnostic errors, serve as a practical guide for what you can do, moving forward, to \"make things right\" to the best of your ability.</p>","PeriodicalId":47972,"journal":{"name":"Head & Neck Pathology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11473457/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Head & Neck Pathology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-024-01706-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PATHOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Our goal for medicine is to make zero mistakes, yet the reality is that mistakes are an unfortunate part of medical practice. And when it comes to surgical pathology, it is a special case where the diagnostic "bottom line" is provided starkly and directly for all to see in the final diagnosis of the pathology report. When this diagnosis is wrong, particularly when it has serious adverse consequences for the patient, the resulting physical, mental, and emotional effects on patient, provider, pathologist, and health care system can be extremely serious. Head and neck surgical pathology, based on large second review-type studies, is a subspecialty area with average rates of major diagnostic error, but with potential for severely negative impacts on patients. Studies have shown between 1% and 7% major error rates for head and neck practice. How then, as the pathologist, can we react to and manage things when we have made a serious diagnostic mistake? Through personal experience over more than two decades, the hard-won answer is through extreme ownership and a focus on the needs of the patients, who, in the words of William J. Mayo, should have their "needs come first". The emotional impact on us as pathologists and on the clinicians we work with should also be acknowledged and managed. This article will serve as a thorough and open examination of these mistake scenarios and, focusing specifically on diagnostic errors, serve as a practical guide for what you can do, moving forward, to "make things right" to the best of your ability.
期刊介绍:
Head & Neck Pathology presents scholarly papers, reviews and symposia that cover the spectrum of human surgical pathology within the anatomic zones of the oral cavity, sinonasal tract, larynx, hypopharynx, salivary gland, ear and temporal bone, and neck.
The journal publishes rapid developments in new diagnostic criteria, intraoperative consultation, immunohistochemical studies, molecular techniques, genetic analyses, diagnostic aids, experimental pathology, cytology, radiographic imaging, and application of uniform terminology to allow practitioners to continue to maintain and expand their knowledge in the subspecialty of head and neck pathology. Coverage of practical application to daily clinical practice is supported with proceedings and symposia from international societies and academies devoted to this field.
Single-blind peer review
The journal follows a single-blind review procedure, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous. Single-blind peer review is the traditional model of peer review that many reviewers are comfortable with, and it facilitates a dispassionate critique of a manuscript.