Abstract

HERRERA-SILVA, Jorge Carlos; TREVINO-MOORE, Aída; ACOSTA-CORONA, Carlos Germán  and  QUEZADA-GARCIA, José Galdino. Patient safety: iatrogenic of pediatricians due to the injudicious use of laboratory tests. Bol. Med. Hosp. Infant. Mex. [online]. 2005, vol.62, n.6, pp.393-405. ISSN 1665-1146.

Introduction. Iatrogenic diseases represents a serious problem in the prevalence, incidence, clinic course and prognosis. Material and methods. Every day clinic records from hospitalized patients in a pediatric department of a third level care unit were review by 3 staff pediatricians who evaluated 4 laboratory requests derivative situations, to establish institutional and individual iatrogenic index. Computer data analysis was applied. Results. Clinic records from 91 patients were evaluated for this study.We observed 57% global iatrogenic index, 4% institutional and 53% individual. No significant differences were found in the interdepartmental comparison. Conclusion. The iatrogenic index in this evaluation was very high, from 10 medical decisions pediatricians commit an error in 5.

Keywords : Evaluation studies; pediatrics; iatrogenic disease; diagnostic services; laboratory diagnosis.