By Howard D. Mishkind, Esq.
There has been a tremendous increase in the interest in the healthcare field in terms of establishing reporting systems when medical errors occur to lead to greater patient trust and increased safety. The major concern and obstacle to reporting has been the concern on the part of the medical provider of the risk of increased litigation by admitting when errors occur. The true benefit of reporting medical errors is to prevent errors from occurring in the future and to determine the root cause of medical errors. Economic interests and concern over litigation seem to have a chilling affect on honest disclosures of medical errors.
Recent articles have been published indicating that a commitment to a successful medical error reporting system is not punitive, but is geared to changing the existing culture in the healthcare system and to eliminating medical errors in the future. See, Medical Errors: Focus More on What and Why, Less on Who, 3 Journal of Oncology Practice 66 (2007). There is a continued interest on the part of various medical groups in establishing a reporting system when medical errors occur so that patients are not kept in the dark. Again, the reservation has been the manner in which such information should be reported and the impact that it will have on a family. See, Reporting Medical Errors, 161 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 179 (2007).
In the experience of this office and this writer, reporting medical errors is the right thing to do. It is the ethical thing to do and the professional thing to do. Simply because an adverse event occurs, does not mean that there has been medical negligence. However, frequently errors or mistakes made that were preventable and avoidable are obscured by an effort on the part of medical providers to hide the truth relative to the outcome and to blame the adverse event on something that was unavoidable.
Recent efforts by hospitals to disclose medical errors and to discuss the cause of same early in the process after an injury or death has occurred, leads to a better understanding by the patient and a greater likelihood that protracted litigation will be avoided and that a just result will be achieved early. In this manner, all participants in this process, including the patient, benefit from same. It is believed that saying, "I'm sorry" is not an admission of incompetence, but a recognition of human frailty. If an error occurs that was avoidable and the error is disclosed without trying to confuse the family about the cause, a better outcome and a more satisfactory result, both financially and emotionally, for all concerned can occur.
If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of a medical procedure, contact one of the lawyers at our office and we will attempt to get you answers to difficult questions. Sometimes bad results occur and the cause of same was not due to medical negligence. Other times, the outcome was preventable and should lead to just compensation. Due to the tremendous cost of this type of litigation, the earlier a medical error is disclosed and a resolution achieved, the better the system will work.
