| dc.description.abstract | In 2012, A study was released showing that more than 40,000 lives were claimed because of medical malpractice in Canada; it is estimated that more than 9,000 of these deaths happened in Quebec in the same year (Charney, 2012). In 2019, The Canadian Patient Safety Institute reported that medical malpractice incidents “are the third leading cause of death in Canada, following cancer and heart disease” (Strengthening Commitment for Improvement Together: A Policy Framework for Patient Safety, 2019). Without proper intervention, this number of deaths will most likely increase. It is assumed that the main reason behind these deaths is the shortage of GPs (General Physicians) in Quebec, as it is about 2.52 GP per 1,000 persons (Wittevrongel & Shaw, 2020), while the threshold of “The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development” (OECD) is 3.6 GPs per 1,000 persons (OECD, 2021). This shortage puts GPs under stress and pressure, which will increase the probability of them making medical errors, leading to increased deaths. Therefore, this thesis aims to study the impact of covering the shortage of GPs in Quebec on the number of deaths caused by medical errors, assuming that excessive workload on GPs puts them under heavy stress leading them to make medical errors, causing more deaths. A computational model was developed using the System Dynamics approach (SD) representing the GPs supply and demand system in Quebec; in addition to a stress and workload system, both systems are simulated to explain the cause and effect relations between their different parts, in addition to their interactions which impact the number of medical errors deaths over time. The findings of the study showed that the main hypothesis partially solves the problem at hand; the modified hypothesis states that by covering the shortage of GPs in Quebec and including practicing pharmacists (PP) in the general practice tasks, the stress and workload on GPs will decrease; thus, a decrease in the number of medical error deaths can be expected. By doing so, this study serves as proof of the impact of shortage in GPs and the impact of stressed and exhausted GPs, on the deaths caused by medical errors. Based on the leverage points found in the system, this thesis can be used for designing policies that can formulate a road map to provide a sustainable GPs Supply system that mainly focuses on the effect of burnout levels of the working GPs on the Medical Malpractice Deaths. | |
