Physician-patient communication is a critical component of healthcare delivery. Disclosing that there was a medical error and offering an apology is an ethical solution that sounds great in theory and in books of medical ethics but is one of the most challenging of such interactions, and it's now critical to rise to the occasion. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” Since then, progressively increasing attention is being focused on medical errors and adverse events because they occur frequently and often are not reported or discussed with affected patients and families.
Discussing unintended outcomes and medical errors is challenging, both personally and professionally, for physicians. Medicine is often said to be both an art and a science. Yet many physicians, patients, and institutions seems to expect "error-free"…
