Doctors say 'I'm sorry' before 'see you in court'
This article focuses on malpractice cases and various ways they are handled by the doctors, mainly ones who apologize to the patient. It begins with a malpractice example of Dr. Tapas Das Gupta, who apologized to the patient for his medical mistake. The article describes how many lawyers still advise doctors to "deny and defend" upon malpractice cases to protect the doctor's career. These lawyers also will often say that what transforms a reasonable patient into an indignant plaintiff is the possibility that the error could happen again. With Dr. Gupta's case, the patient took the $74,000 offered from the hospital and decided not to sue. In recent studies, it was found that only about 30 percent of medical errors are disclosed to the patients, and only a small fraction of injured patients, about 2 percent, press legal claims. The article also describes policies that work towards this and groups that advocated disclosure during medical errors such as The Sorry Works! Coalition. Another case is then mentioned about patient named Maria Del Rosario Valdez, who had to have a second surgery after a medical mistake, but she was gratified that the hospital took time to apologize. The article ends with a quote on how if things don't usually settle quickly, they tend to last for a very long time.
Visuals Associated: doctor, lawyer, courtroom, medical supplies, money, handshake, single hand
Related Links:
Similar article by The Boston Globe
A detailed blog analysis of doctors and trust
The Sorry Works! Coalition
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