What are patients' concerns about medical errors in an emergency department?

Concerns about medical errors have recently increased. An understanding of how patients conceptualise medical error would help health care providers to allay safety concerns and increase patient satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' worries about medical errors and their relationship with patient characteristics and satisfaction. This descriptive cross-sectional study was done in the Emergency Department [ED] of a university hospital over a one week period in October 2008. A questionnaire was used to assess patients' worries about medical errors and their satisfaction levels both at an initial interview and by telephone 7 days after discharge. Data were gathered and analysed by chi-square, t-tests and logistic regression. Of 638 patients interviewed, 61.6% declared their satisfaction rate as good to excellent; [93 [14.6%] as poor; 152 [23.8%] as fair; 296 [46.4%] as good; 97 [15.2%] as excellent]. A total of 48.3% of patients [44.5-52%, with confidence interval 95%] were concerned about the occurrence of at least one medical error. There was a clear relationship between the general satisfaction rate and having at least one concern about a medical error [Chi-square, P <0.001]. This study showed that many patients were concerned about medical errors during their emergency care. Due to the stressful situation in EDs, patients' safety and satisfaction could be improved by a better understanding of patient concerns, education of ED staff and an improvement in the patient-doctor relationship

Prinzmetal's angina in a pregnant woman: a case report

Acute myocardial infarction [MI] during pregnancy is rare and MI due to Prinzmetal's angina is much rarer. We present a 35-year-old, obese, multigravida, and pre-eclamptic woman, who developed acute anterior wall MI at the 30th week of gestation. On coronary angiography, the second obtuse marginal branch was totally occluded and the right coronary artery [RCA] was normal. Three days later, she had chest pain and ST elevation in the inferior leads. On second angiography, there was narrowing in the RCA, while the obtuse marginal branch was patent. We presume that this discrepancy between the first and second electrocardiograms and angiographic findings was due to Prinzmetal's angina