Table 2

Distribution of PSPs (n=2589) among specific PSP types in ambulatory care

PSP types per treatment area		PSP (n)	PSP (%)	95% CI
Anamnesis/diagnostic procedures	Important questions about complaints not asked	515	19.9	18.4 to 21.5
	Insufficient physical examination	381	14.7	13.4 to 16.1
	Medically necessary examination not made	157	6.1	5.2 to 7.0
	Results communicated too late/not at all	136	5.3	4.4 to 6.2
	Wrong diagnosis	128	4.9	4.2 to 5.8
	Serious illness not recognised or recognised too late	97	3.8	3.1 to 4.5
	Faulty examination	69	2.7	2.1 to 3.3
	Incorrect test result communicated	54	2.1	1.6 to 2.7
	Wrong examination	46	1.8	1.3 to 2.3
Medication	Wrongly prescribed drugs	83	3.2	2.6 to 3.9
	Prescribed without considering the interaction with another drug	78	3.0	2.4 to 3.7
	Necessary drugs not prescribed	72	2.8	2.2 to 3.5
	Prescribed in the wrong dose/form	65	2.5	2.0 to 3.2
	Prescribed, although the doctor knew of an intolerance	54	2.1	1.6 to 2.7
	Discontinued too early/too late/not at all	46	1.8	1.3 to 2.3
Vaccination, injection, infusion	Administered without noticing the interaction with another medication	42	1.6	1.2 to 2.2
	Administered in the wrong place	23	0.9	0.6 to 1.3
	Not administered, although necessary	20	0.8	0.5 to 1.2
	Administered with a wrong active substance	19	0.7	0.5 to 1.1
	Administered, even though the doctor knew of an intolerance	8	0.3	0.1 to 0.6
Aftercare	Not at all	34	1.3	0.9 to 1.8
	Belated	28	1.1	0.7 to 1.5
	Wrong	4	0.1	0.1 to 0.4
Outpatient surgery	Not done properly	44	1.7	1.3 to 2.3
	Performed too late	9	0.4	0.2 to 0.7
	Result of surgery not communicated/communicated too late	4	0.2	0.1 to 0.4
	Result of surgery communicated incorrectly	2	0.1	0.0 to 0.3
	Wrong surgery	1	0.0	0.0 to 0.2
Office administration	Examination results not/not completely available	152	5.9	5.0 to 6.8
	Confused with another patient	73	2.8	2.2 to 3.5
	Home visit not performed	29	1.1	0.8 to 1.6
Other areas	Other PSP	116	4.5	3.7 to 5.3

PSP, patient safety problem.