Harvard adopts a disclosure and apology policy
For physicians who have erred, "sorry" isn't always an easy thing to say.
By Kevin B. O'Reilly, amednews staff. June 12, 2006.
San Francisco -- Harvard's 16 teaching hospitals are hoping that a policy of routine disclosure and apology after preventable adverse events can begin to heal the lasting emotional scars both patients and physicians endure in such cases.
The new Harvard policy was outlined in a March consensus statement and highlighted during a session attended by thousands of physicians, nurses, hospital administrators and researchers at the eighth annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress in May. The conference is sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation.
The statement, "When Things Go Wrong: Responding to Adverse Events," outlines the reasoning and evidence for every step in the process of communicating with patients and their families in the aftermath of an unexpected outcome.
"Silence is lying without words," said Lucian L. Leape, MD, a Harvard health policy analyst who chaired the working group behind the Harvard statement. "It confirms suspicion."
Dr. Leape said that for too long a "second victim" of medical error has been ignored -- the physician or other health professional responsible for it. The Harvard statement calls for hospitals to attend to the emotional aftermath of medical error for the physicians and other health professionals involved in the case.
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