Medical errors are every doctor's nightmare, and whenever an error occurs the reflex response is trying to hide it. You try to cover it up, so that while you're fixing the problem, at least you don't have to worry about whether patient is angry, or upset, or will sue you. However, this attempt to try to bury the error, and pretend that it never happened can be counterproductive and it often backfires. Patients can become extremely vengeful when they find out that you were not honest with them.
While patients are often okay with forgiving genuine errors, they are not okay with your trying to fool them by doing a deliberate cover-up. You need to change your attitude, and instead of panicking, start thinking of medical errors as being teachable moments. While there's very little which you can do to undo the error, being open and transparent about it will help you to fix it faster; and…
