Documentation of Medical Errors in Nigeria: A Review

Background: Medical errors can lead to a consequential number of deaths, which can have great repercussions on public health and patient safety. Medical errors must be reported as soon as they occur, especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, which lack proper reporting systems. This review aimed to identify studies and summarize and make recommendations on improving the reporting of medical errors. Methods An extensive search of electronic databases (PubMed and Medline) was performed. Studies were included if they described the reporting of medical errors by healthcare practitioners in hospitals in Nigeria and excluded if there was no full-text English version available or if the research was not conducted in a Nigerian healthcare setting. Results The database search yielded a total of 95 studies, and only seven were included in this review. The research designs used in the included studies were cross-sectional surveys and descriptive surveys. A high prevalence of medical errors which ranged from 42.8 to 89.8% was reported across all studies and the reporting rate was as low as 30% in one study. Fear was reported as the most common barrier to reporting medical errors by healthcare practitioners. Conclusion This is the first review to assess the evidence on medical error reporting in hospitals in Nigeria. This review identified ways to improve medical error reporting in Nigerian hospitals. Due to the essential role that medical error reporting plays in learning and preventing reoccurrence, additional research needs to be done in this area.