Including patients on root cause analysis teams: pros and cons.

• dispels any misconceptions about the staff’s degree of response to the error. • helps to alleviate their feelings of isolation, helplessness, and confusion about how and why the error occurred. • reduces self-blaming and blaming of individual staff members as the system-based causes of errors are revealed and described. • minimizes their frustration and anger.1–3 • demonstrates the organization’s commitment to learning and change. • increases their comfort in knowing that some good will come from the event.1–4 • facilitates the healing process.2,3 • promotes forgiveness through honest interaction with the health care team.1–4