Patients More Satisfied in Care if Errors are Disclosed

Patients do see beyond the error when health practitioners disclose the truth. In the news article from the Boston Globe, results from a conducted survey by Dr. Lenny Lopez of Massachusetts General Hospital from 2,500 patients who had been patients in 16 hospitals in Massachusetts revealed that those who were told about adverse events were twice as likely to call their care good or excellent as patients who were not told about them. Four out of ten mistakes were reported by hospital staff. Errors that required additional treatment was more likely to be discussed than the others and errors that are preventable were less likely to be told of than the unavoidable events.

Disclosing the truth to the patient is the ethical thing to do in case of errors occurring especially if the incident was preventable. Though patients may not like the news, they would at least respect the effort of the health team to disclose the incident to them. Getting the truth from the persons directly responsible for it is better than learning about it later on and finding out that the health team tried to cover up their mistakes. If this becomes the case, the patient involved will not have second thoughts taking legal action on the matter. Issues like this will give the public reasons to doubt the honesty of the professionals involved or even lose trust in the profession.

The results of this survey should serve as an encouragement not only to nurses but to all health professionals who have been and who will be faced in such situation, to do the right thing. Being honest about one’s mistake does not mean that one is incompetent but shows that we are dedicated to the quality of care that we provide and put the safety of the patient above all else.