Disclosure

Disclosure of adverse events to patients and their families is a difficult but necessary part of improving quality and promoting safe medical care. What is the best method for disclosing an error to the patient? Most research on the subject has been done with a financial focus; however, clinical and ethical considerations must also be addressed.   One area of research needed is the influence of the clinician that made the error. In medical practice, the cultural expectation is that perfection is the norm; this causes guilt and shame when errors occur. Clinicians are also concerned with the risk of litigation and their professional reputation. An institutional punitive culture will also negatively affect the likelihood of disclosing events. As a result of these barriers, patients often do not get all the information to which they are ethically entitled. Assisting clinicians with disclosure is an important opportunity.

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