Findings from a study published online in the Journal of Patient Safety highlight differences in viewpoints between clinicians and patients regarding disclosure of medical errors.

The researchers surveyed 50 clinicians and 65 patients and family members from a hospital patient and family advisory council. They found that patients’ and family members’ views about disclosure were significantly different from clinicians' in 70 percent of disclosure expectation items and 100 percent of disclosure vignette items. Compared with clinicians, patients and family members more strongly agreed that "patients want to know all the details of what happened" and more strongly disagreed that "patients find explanation(s) more confusing than helpful." In the medication error vignette, compared to clinicians, patients and family members more strongly agreed that the error should be disclosed and that the patient would want to know, and more strongly disagreed that disclosure would do more harm than good. The researchers write that after completing a workshop on medical error disclosure, both groups' viewpoints on information sharing, fallibility, truth telling, and threshold for disclosure displayed greater concordance. Learn more...