[From guilt and shame to professional handling of mistakes--risk management in surgical medicine]. / Von Schuld und Scham zu einem professionellen Umgang mit Fehlern--Risikomanagement in der operativen Medizin.

Medical advances in diagnosis and therapy, especially in medical technology, lead to differenciated and more complex strategies in therapy with higher risks. Patients show higher expectations concerning the results of a therapy and claim more often that a mistake in treatment has been made. This makes patients turn to arbitration boards more often. They may also want to bring civil action against physicians and hospitals, claiming for compensation and damages. Personal liability insurances have to pay more for damages. Medical insurances have more recourse demands due to mistake in treatment. Hospital and especially operative medicine do have high chances of risks and mistakes. The implementation of a modern risk management system in the hospitals is becoming more and more important, for patients as well as for the surgical departments. A structured reporting system of critical incidents can produce indicators of potential sources of mistakes, which appears to be a successful approach to reduce or avoid typical risks and mistakes in medical treatment. Risk management in medical treatment must be more than just a trendy word, because its roots are in the medical principles of "primum nihil nocere". It is a challenge to today's and tomorrow's medicine. This article is a general overview of current strategies for avoiding mistakes: It is meant to be the basis of a new culture of mistake avoidance as a part of a future quality competition.

[Postoperative pain relief is an important factor for the patients' selection of a clinic. Results of an anonymous survey]. / Die Qualität der postoperativen Schmerztherapie beeinflusst die Krankenhauswahl. Ergebnisse einer anonymen Patientenumfrage.

AIM: The aim of the survey was to elucidate the significance of postoperative pain therapy for the patient and its influence on the choice of hospital. METHODS: This prospective, anonymous survey of consecutive patients in a general surgical clinic was performed by an independent study nurse. RESULTS: A total of 161 patients were included; 90% of the surgical patients considered "good pain therapy" as a highly important factor, and three of four patients would admit themselves more likely to a clinic well known for "good pain therapy." If the patients could choose their hospital, factors such as "medical care by the physicians" are most important (rank 1; rank 1 most important, rank 10 most unimportant) followed by quality of "nursing care" (mean rank 2.6) and "good pain therapy" (mean rank 3.6). Older patients (> or = 60 years) preferred a hospital with known "good pain therapy" more often for surgical therapy than younger patients (< 60 years). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that postoperative pain relief is an important factor for the patients' selection of a clinic and is influenced by an age of > or = 60 years.