What Factors Were Discussed Which Might Influence Medical Error Disclosures
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Then write up your responses to the following questions and submit.
1. How does Dr. Thomas Gallagher define "Adverse Event"?
Adverse event is any harm that results from the process of health care rather than from the patient’s primary disease. Every time we harm the patient through the health care we deliver is an adverse event.
2. Dr. Gallagher describes a gap between the number of medical personnel who disclose medical errors and the expectations of the public. What does Dr. Gallagher feel might contribute to this gap?
Even though people know that disclosure is the right thing to do, they lack the moral courage to do so. There are also other complications in the area of disclosure that have not been fully studied so this may also contribute to the gap.
3. What factors were discussed which might influence medical error disclosures? Factors that can influence medical error disclosure include how obvious the error will be to the patient and cultural differences across the specialties. Internal medicine physicians might approach disclosure differently than surgeons. Also, cultural differences on…show more content… Both University of Michigan and COPIC detail full disclosure with an early offer of compensation within their policies. The full disclosure with an early offer of compensation within their policies has impacted University of Michigan by decreasing from 3 to 1 million dollars in litigation costs and the average time from claim to resolution has also dropped dramatically. Since COPIC developed a no fault program that revolves around early reimbursement, they have only dealt with 4,000 events and found that only half of them met the criteria for disclosure. Of the 2,000 cases, only 1,600 were closed without payment, meaning disclosure itself was enough for the patient. Early disclosure has worked for both institutions by saving them money and