RESEARCH
Medical Error and Chronic Illness Mangement
In 2003, I revisited the physicians from my earlier ethnographic study and conducted in-depth interviews examining how providers conceptualize clinical missteps in context of chronic illness management. These data show that the prototypical vocabularies of medical error and quality assurance, which have been largely oriented to acute illness care, are systematically mismatched to ambiguities introduced by chronic illness. These ambiguities create problems for the definition of medical errors, the collection of relevant information, the determination of long-term treatment goals, and the application of standardization efforts.
Related paper:
Lutfey, Karen and Jeremy Freese. 2007. “Ambiguities of Chronic Illness Management and Challenges to the Medical Error Paradigm.” Social Science and Medicine 64: 314-25.
In 2003, I revisited the physicians from my earlier ethnographic study and conducted in-depth interviews examining how providers conceptualize clinical missteps in context of chronic illness management. These data show that the prototypical vocabularies of medical error and quality assurance, which have been largely oriented to acute illness care, are systematically mismatched to ambiguities introduced by chronic illness. These ambiguities create problems for the definition of medical errors, the collection of relevant information, the determination of long-term treatment goals, and the application of standardization efforts.
Related paper:
Lutfey, Karen and Jeremy Freese. 2007. “Ambiguities of Chronic Illness Management and Challenges to the Medical Error Paradigm.” Social Science and Medicine 64: 314-25.
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KAREN LUTFEY
Director, Center on Patient-Provider Relationships
Senior Research Scientist
New England Research Institutes
9 Galen Street, Watertown, MA 02472
Tel: (617) 972-3313
Fax: (617)926-8246
Email: klutfey@neriscience.com
Director, Center on Patient-Provider Relationships
Senior Research Scientist
New England Research Institutes
9 Galen Street, Watertown, MA 02472
Tel: (617) 972-3313
Fax: (617)926-8246
Email: klutfey@neriscience.com