Medical errors are an important concern in medical practice and may occur throughout the processes of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation. Despite the use of modern technology in health care, these errors remain one of the most challenging issues that medical management seeks to minimize.

Modern literature denies that medical error is as old as medicine offering proves that it dates back considerably earlier and answering that it is very difficult to meet doctor who would deliberately and intentionally make a mistake and commit crime. By doing so, he breaks professional rules, ethical values, Hippocratic Oath and endangers health and / or life of the patient. Intentional medical error, according to legal interpretation (1) represents the expression of conscientious doc-tor’ s treatment contrary to medical profession rules or disregard of medical standards, regula-tions, procedures and measures. . . .

Medical errors are an important concern in medical practice and may occur throughout the processes of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation. Despite the use of modern technology in health care, these errors remain one of the most challenging issues that medical management seeks to minimize.

Background: This study was conducted to explore the prevalence of medical error underreporting and associated barriers.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed from September to December 2012. Five hospitals, affiliated with Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, in Hamedan, Iran were investigated. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Participants consisted of physicians, nurses, midwives, residents, interns, and staffs of radiology and laboratory departments.Results: Overall, 50.26% of subjects had committed but not reported medical errors. The main reasons mentioned for underreporting were lack of effective medical error reporting system (60.0%), lack of proper reporting form (51.8%), lack of peer supporting a person who has committed an error (56.0%), and lack of personal attention to the importance of medical errors (62.9%). The rate of committing medical errors was higher in men (71.4%), age of 50–40 years (67.6%), less-experienced personnel (58.7%), educational level of MSc (87.5%), and staff of radiology department (88.9%).Conclusions: This study outlined the main barriers to reporting medical errors and associated factors that may be helpful for healthcare organizations in improving medical error reporting as an essential component for patient safety enhancement.