For decades, malpractice lawyers and insurers have counseled doctors and
hospitals to ³deny and defend.² Many still warn clients that any
admission of fault, or even expression of regret, is likely to invite
litigation and imperil careers.
But with providers choking on malpractice costs and consumers demanding
action against medical errors, a handful of prominent academic medical
centers, like Johns Hopkins and Stanford, are trying a disarming
approach.
By promptly disclosing medical errors and offering earnest apologies and
fair compensation, they hope to restore integrity to dealings with
patients, make it easier to learn from mistakes and dilute anger that
often fuels lawsuits.
Malpractice lawyers say that what often transforms a reasonable patient
into an indignant plaintiff is less an error than its concealment, and
the victim's concern that it will happen again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18apology.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=s
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