Disclosure and apology

Transparency, apology and disclosure of adverse outcomes.

Medical errors became a common topic of conversation with the release of the Institute of Medicine's "To Err Is Human" in November of 1999. This release reported that as many as 98,000 people die each year from inpatient medical errors. Putting this into perspective, deaths from medical errors surpassed deaths from breast cancer, motor vehicle accidents, and AIDS. Furthermore, medication errors...

Full disclosure and apology--an idea whose time has come.

Disclosure, apology, and offer programs: stakeholders' views of barriers to and strategies for broad implementation.

CONTEXT The Disclosure, Apology, and Offer (DA&O) model, a response to patient injuries caused by medical care, is an innovative approach receiving national attention for its early success as an alternative to the existing inherently adversarial, inefficient, and inequitable medical liability system. Examples of DA&O programs, however, are few. METHODS Through key informant interviews, we inv...

Apology

Giving back the pen: disclosure, apology and early compensation discussions after harm in the healthcare setting.

In her recently published book After Harm, Nancy Berlinger shares a story about Bishop Desmond Tutu as he comments on the importance of restitution or compensation after an event that has led to harm. Transparency and disclosure are very much on the healthcare agenda in Canada. The increased interest in training providers for difficult conversations and disclosure is a positive sign. Using hone...