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The Many Faces of Error Disclosure: A Common Set of Elements and a Definition

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Abstract

Background

Patients want to know when errors happen in their care. Professional associations, ethicists, and patient safety experts endorse disclosure of medical error to patients. Surveys of physicians show that they believe harmful errors should be disclosed to patients, yet errors are often not disclosed.

Objective

To understand the discrepancy between patients’ expectations and physicians’ behavior concerning error disclosure.

Design, Setting, and Participants

We conducted focus groups to determine what constitutes disclosure of medical error. Twenty focus groups, 4 at each of 5 academic centers, included 204 hospital administrators, physicians, residents, and nurses.

Approach

Qualitative analysis of the focus group transcripts with attention to examples of error disclosure by clinicians and hospital administrators.

Results

Clinicians and administrators considered various forms of communication about errors to be error disclosure. Six elements of disclosure identified from focus group transcripts characterized disclosures ranging from Full disclosure (including admission of a mistake, discussion of the error, and a link from the error to harm) to Partial disclosures, which included deferral, misleading statements, and inadequate information to “connect the dots.” Descriptions involving nondisclosure of harmful errors were uncommon.

Conclusions

Error disclosure may mean different things to clinicians than it does to patients. The various forms of communication deemed error disclosure by clinicians may explain the discrepancy between error disclosure beliefs and behaviors. We suggest a definition of error disclosure to inform practical policies and interventions.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ HS11512-02, Lee Hilborne, PI). Stephanie Fein was supported by a National Research Service Award training grant (PE-19001). The authors recognize and appreciate the technical assistance of Tuyen Nguyen and Victor Gonzalez. Portions of this manuscript were presented at the annual meeting for the Society of General Internal Medicine on May 15, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois.

Conflict of Interest Statement

None disclosed.

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Correspondence to Stephanie P. Fein MD, MPH.

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Fein, S.P., Hilborne, L.H., Spiritus, E.M. et al. The Many Faces of Error Disclosure: A Common Set of Elements and a Definition. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 755–761 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0157-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0157-9

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