Patients' and doctors' attitudes to amount of information given after unintended injury during treatment: cross sectional, questionnaire survey

The Many Faces of Error Disclosure: A Common Set of Elements and a Definition

“…Most clinicians indicated that they would disclose an error to patients, but the qualitative analysis revealed that clinicians held a nuanced definition of "disclosure" that most often did not contain the elements desired by patients. [2][3][4]8,9 This difference creates a potential communication gap between clinicians and patients in the aftermath of a harmful error. To many clinicians, disclosure was not a straightforward description of what happened.…”

“…4,12,31 Error disclosure is an essential process to ensure that patients receive the information needed to make informed decisions about their care. Ethicists, professional organiza-tions, and researchers align in support of open disclosure of errors.…”

“…They also expect an apology, a plan to prevent future errors, and a care (and perhaps a financial) plan for themselves. 2,8,9 Most physicians agree that errors causing harm should be disclosed to patients 2,4,6 However, research…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Patients want to hear a clear explanation of the error that they can understand. They also expect an apology, a plan to prevent future errors, and a care (and perhaps a financial) plan for themselves.…”

Dilemas éticos acerca de la revelación de errores médicos a los pacientes

“…La experiencia de un abogado relata que, en la mayoría de los casos, lo que los pacientes realmente querían era sólo una explicación sincera de qué sucedió, y una disculpa 16 . Tal como lo muestran numerosos estudios, el no comunicar los errores a los pacientes afecta la confianza y satisfacción de los pacientes y aumenta las probabilidades de una demanda [17][18][19][20][21] . Otro estudio americano evaluó las preferencias de padres de población pediátrica respecto al reporte y revelado de errores, validando también una amplia preferencia por el revelado de errores (99%) y el reporte de los mismos a instancias disciplinarias (39%); en 36% de los casos el revelado del error disminuía las probabilidades de buscar apoyo legal por parte de los padres 12 .…”