Apologies in medicine: Legal protection is not enough

McLennan, Stuart; Rich, Leigh E.; Truog, Robert D.

doi:10.1503/cmaj.131860

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Underlying medical condition of the patient is the main source of “harm”. However, a medical error may be another source of unintended harm to the patient, and it is related to the care and/or services provided to the patient 50. Still, one of the most challenging unanswered question is “What constitutes a medical error?…”

Section: Root Analysis: From “Culture Of Blame” To a “Just Culture”mentioning

confidence: 99%

<p>Second victims in health care: current perspectives</p>

Özeke¹,

Özeke

Çoşkun

et al. 2019

AMEP

104

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Medical errors are a serious public health problem and the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Every day, the health care professionals (HCPs) practice their skill and knowledge within excessively complex situations and meet unexpected patient outcomes. These unexpected complications and unintentional errors will always be a part of the medical system due to the universal nature of human fallibility and technology. While not all errors are life-threatening, they can significantly compromise a patient’s quality of life. However, the victims of medical error reach far beyond the patient. The second victim (SV), which defined for the first time by Albert Wu in his description of the impact of errors on HCPs by both personally and professionally, is a medical emergency equivalent to post-traumatic stress disorder. When the errors occur, it causes a domino effect including the four groups: the patient and family (first victim), the HCP [SV], the hospital reputation (third victim), and patients who are harmed subsequently (fourth victims). The rights of our patients to safe, reliable, and patient-centered care are critical and most important as a primary and utmost aim of medicine. However, we also have to take care of our own (SVs), especially when we have good people who mean to do well and then ﬁnd themselves in an emotionally complex situation. There is a need to articulate to the public, politicians, and media how system failure leads to medical error even in hand of well-educated and competent HCPs are given an increasing clinical workload. Furthermore, despite several leading institutions in western countries have developed formal support programs that allow HCPs to cope with their emotional distress by obtaining timely support in an emphatic, confidential, non-judgmental environment, we need to raise awareness of this phenomenon and appropriate institutional responses both to harmed patients and their families and HCPs.

show abstract

Section: Root Analysis: From “Culture Of Blame” To a “Just Culture”mentioning

confidence: 99%

<p>Second victims in health care: current perspectives</p>

Özeke¹,

Özeke

Çoşkun

et al. 2019

AMEP

104

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A diagnostic error is either diagnosis of a non-existing disease (a positive error) or not recognising the existing disease, which leads to a deterioration of patient's health [12]. An error committed on this stage of treatment usually results from faulty premises, on which the physician resisted and affects the entire treatment process, often causing irreversible effects [13].…”

Section: Diagnostic Errormentioning

confidence: 99%

Rodzaje odpowiedzialności lekarza za błędy medyczne w ramach umowy o pracę oraz umowy cywilnoprawnej

Kocańda

2018

Folia Cardiologica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Disclosure is not solely an ethical and professional requirement. It is also a legal requirement rooted in common law that has been further strengthened in recent years by the “international shift” away from secrecy to openness with Canada being a leader in working towards greater transparency (McLennan et al, 2015). By way of example of this shift, Manitoba introduced legislation in 2006 ( The Regional Health Authorities Amendment and Amendments to the Manitoba Evidence Act ) that requires no-blame critical incident reporting from the regional health authorities.…”

Section: Apology As Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mea Culpa: Apology Legislation, Accountability and Care

Levasseur

MacDonald

2018

Can J Pol Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasingly, jurisdictions are adopting “apology legislation” that allow medical professionals to apologize to patients and family members when an adverse event occurs while disallowing the introduction of the apology in a liability case as evidence of fault or liability. While apology legislation itself is fairly straightforward, its potential meaning and impact is much more complex. This paper conceptualizes apology legislation from an accountability and ethics of care perspective. These two concepts—accountability and care—are distinct but interrelated concepts and this dual theoretical approach offers a rich analysis on the potential impact(s) of apology legislation. We argue that apology legislation is a mechanism added to the existing accountability regime that can offer important opportunities to express and practise care. As an accountability mechanism, apology legislation creates space for an accountability relationship to emerge between medical professionals and their patients. Apology legislation also addresses long-standing gaps in how we as a society think about health care and respond to patients and families in ways that challenge the dominant “consumer of services” role. It is in this sense that apology legislation has the potential to destabilize traditional notions of social citizenship. Last, we argue that empirical research is urgently needed to know to what degree apologies contribute to accountability and the transformation of health care.

show abstract

Apologies in medicine: Legal protection is not enough

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

<p>Second victims in health care: current perspectives</p>

<p>Second victims in health care: current perspectives</p>

Rodzaje odpowiedzialności lekarza za błędy medyczne w ramach umowy o pracę oraz umowy cywilnoprawnej

Mea Culpa: Apology Legislation, Accountability and Care

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About