This article discusses the “end result idea,” a concept that describes that physicians should follow up with their patients after treatment to evaluate their results as well as to make these assessments public. The “end result idea” promotes the fact that physicians should be transparent with their patients as well as the public in addressing health outcomes. By being transparent, physicians and healthcare institutions can promote patient safety, healthcare professional learning, and overall healthcare quality.

University of Missouri’s forYOU Team is an organization that supports caregivers in the aftermath of traumatic medical incidents or during the stress of their job. The institution offers multiple resources on identifying symptoms of distress as well as how to support caregivers.

The goal of the VA National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) is to offer tool kits, resources, and event analysis methods to help promote patient safety. The NCPS program is based on a systems approach to problem solving that focuses on prevention, not punishment. The organization uses human factors engineering methods and applies concepts from high-reliability organizations, such as aviation, to target and eliminate system vulnerabilities.

The Virtual Lecture Hall offers a two-hour course called Human Side of Medical Errors, which will effectively teach participants how to make ethical decisions when providing medical services to colleagues or loved ones, as well as how to constructively respond to a patient’s emotional reaction after they were involved an adverse incident.

The Foundation for Health Care Quality is a Seattle-based nonprofit foundation that offers third party sources to everyone involved in healthcare, including physicians, patients, government organizations, and payers. The institution offers various resources to promote healthcare quality and patient care, such as assessment and communication-and-resolution (CPP) programs.

Although open communication with patients is the established best practice after a medical error, healthcare providers’ conversations with each other in these circumstances are less studied. The authors identified and compared what providers identified as the most important thing to say to their peer and to the patient after a medical error. The found that providers approach conversations about medical errors with a peer differently than with patients and may benefit from additional communication training or support.

The objective of this study is to analyze incident reports from hospital patients to identify adverse medical incidents and near-miss mishaps in their care. Researchers found that most of the adverse events involving patients are not identified. Thus, it is important for hospital systems to partner with patients to efficiently and quickly identify adverse medical events and errors to promote overall healthcare quality and patient safety.

Michelle Mello, the Director of the Program in Law and Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, analyzed the effectiveness of communication-and-resolution programs (CRPs) in this article. She found that these models are efficient at addressing healthcare liability issues revolving around adverse medical outcomes. These programs offer a guide for healthcare professionals on how to disclose medical errors to their patients, while also developing ways to prevent future adverse events.

When a patient is unintentionally harmed during medical treatment, how should organizations respond?

Not that long ago, steps like these were unthinkable and, from a risk manager’s perspective, totally unwise. Today these practices are at the core of what are called communication and resolution programs (or CRPs), and their architects say there’s been a significant uptick in US health systems using them. Our guests are two leading experts on CRPs, Tom Gallagher and Allen Kachalia. They and a team of researchers have been teasing out the reasons why so many health care leaders are committed to the principles of CRPs, but hesitant to deploy the practices.

If you’ve been wondering what’s been going on with CRPs and new ways forward, this WIHI is for you.

This article explores how physicians gain wisdom following an adverse medical event. Methods included discusses the incident with colleagues, forgiveness, accepting imperfection in the medical profession, and admitting the mistake and apologizing. These methods not only help physicians learn and cope with medically adverse events, but also help them develop a positive outlook.

“We Signed Up for This!” — Student and Trainee Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic by Thomas H. Gallagher, M.D., and Anneliese M. Schleyer, M.D., M.H.A.

Despite the risk and challenges, students and trainees showed their unrelenting desire and commitment to care for the sick. Residents helped cover extra shifts, students prepared home care kits for Covid-19 patients, and even provided child care for health care workers. The unprecedented public health crisis caused students and trainees to experienced considerable loss.

A short anonymous survey was conducted to learn how COVID-19 is affecting students and trainees. Responses from University of Washington medical students, residents and fellow reveal a mixture of safety, quality of care and practical concerns among the participants. The article also includes how leaders in medical education can provide support and convert this crisis to a valuable learning experience for all the students and trainees.