The Article in Brief

Fifteen practicing family physicians identified medical errors and preventable problems in almost one quarter (23.6%) of their patient visits. Office administration errors were most frequently identified. According to the physicians’ estimates, 23.7% of the errors and events led to minor patient harm, especially increased emotional distress and wasted time for the patient. In this and other studies, participants had different views of when an error is a “nuisance” and when it is a “harm.” Future primary care research is needed to clarify definitions for harm, refine a classification system for errors, and estimate the occurrence of errors.