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A Time for Professional Action

Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:1819-1824.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

Physicians find themselves in an increasingly untenable bind when deciding whether and how to disclose harmful medical errors to patients. Error disclosure is desired by patients and advocated by safety experts and ethicists and is now included in many hospital policies, state laws, and accreditation standards.^1-13 Yet, as the malpractice crisis deepens, calls to fully disclose errors to patients can strike physicians as naive, simplistic, and unacceptably risky.^14-16 As a result, many patients receive little information about errors in their care. Recently, only 30% of physicians who experienced an error in their own health care said that they were told about the error, a disclosure rate consistent with prior studies.^17-23

Improving the disclosure process could enhance patients’ satisfaction and their trust in physicians’ integrity.^24-26 Furthermore, as error disclosure becomes better integrated with patient safety activities, such disclosure could promote higher quality of care. Yet, physicians may feel that the medical . . . [Full Text of this Article]

THE DISCLOSURE DILEMMA

ENHANCING ERROR DISCLOSURE: THE NEXT STEPS

DISCLOSURE AND MALPRACTICE

ESTABLISHING AND DISSEMINATING EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDELINES FOR ERROR DISCLOSURE

INTEGRATING ERROR DISCLOSURE AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

ADDITIONAL STEPS TO ENHANCE DISCLOSURE

CONCLUSIONS

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Thomas H. Gallagher, MD; Wendy Levinson, MD

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