New culture for coping: Turning to peer support after medical errors

The legal impact from a medical error can be devastating; so can the emotional toll. Doctors at a Boston hospital are helping one another.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Sept. 11, 2006.

Jo Shapiro, MD, immediately recognized that she perforated her patient's throat during surgery. The patient survived but developed a chest and neck infection and later sued unsuccessfully. Once the initial shock passed, Dr. Shapiro, chief of otolaryngology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, came to realize that she was a second victim of the adverse event.

Sadness, fear, anger, panic, humiliation, guilt and shame were just a few of the emotions that set in. Fortunately, she was married to a physician in whom she could confide and lean on for support. She wondered, though, about how well a physician without built-in peer support could handle the aftermath of an adverse event or medical error.

It's very hard, according to Frederick A. Van Pelt, MD. The BWH anesthesiologist said he felt isolated after a patient of his, Linda Kenney, required open-heart surgery when sedative from the nerve block he administered for a total ankle replacement somehow entered her bloodstream, sending her into cardiac arrest.

To change the go-it-alone culture, Drs. Van Pelt and Shapiro in July helped form the BWH Peer Support Team to aid physicians grappling with the psychological, emotional and social difficulties they face when things go wrong.

Dr. Shapiro, who is one of more than 20 BWH health professionals on the Peer Support Team, said the goal is to help doctors realize that once the patient's condition has been stabilized or resolved it's OK for physicians to think about their own reactions.