Communication in the emergency department:   separating the signal from the noise

Vincent, Charles A; Wears, Robert L

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04478.x

Topics

Communication overload may well lead to errors, but this is yet to be firmly established

Although stories of misunderstandings, ambiguity, amnesia and lack of cooperation abound, there have been few studies of communication between healthcare professionals. Recently, the topic has been given new impetus as communication problems have been identified as a major contributory factor to the occurrence of errors and adverse events.1

1 Clinical Risk Unit, Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
2 Center for Safety in Emergency Care, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

Correspondence: c.vincent@ucl.ac.uk

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