Previous studies suggest that psychologically safe workplaces foster a feeling of comfort among employees, allowing them to feel comfortable with taking risks, such as identifying mistakes in the workplace. In this study, researchers analyzed the levels of psychological safety in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals, and studied its relationship to employees’ comfort in disclosing medical mistakes. Researchers found that only a minority of workers were uncomfortable in admitting mistakes, and their discomfort was due to fear of retaliation.

This white paper introduces an overall approach and tools designed to support two processes: the proactive preparation of a plan for managing serious clinical adverse events, and the reactive emergency response of an organization that has no such plan.

Every day, clinical adverse events occur within our health care system, causing physical and psychological harm to one or more patients, their families, staff (including medical staff), the community, and the organization. In the crisis that often emerges, what differentiates organizations, positively or negatively, is their culture of safety, the role of the board of trustees and executive leadership, advanced planning for such an event, the balanced prioritization of the needs of the patient and family, staff, and organization, and how actions immediately and over time bring empathy, support, resolution, learning, and improvement. The risks of not responding to these adverse events in a timely and effective manner are significant, and include loss of trust, absence of healing, no learning and improvement, the sending of mixed messages about what is really important to the organization, increased likelihood of regulatory action or lawsuits, and challenges by the media.

The paper includes three tools for leaders (as appendices) — a Checklist, a Work Plan, and a Disclosure Culture Assessment Tool — and numerous resources to guide practice. The three tools are also included below as individual documents for ease of use.

The 2011 (second edition) update reflects a number of suggested improvements and clarifications, including new content on reimbursement and compensation as part of any discussion of disclosure and resolution, and disclosure of errors that have occurred at another institution, among other updates. Additional citations, resources, and examples from organizations mounting effective crisis responses are also included.

Dr. Jo Shapiro of Brigham and Women’s Hospital is interviewed about disclosure, peer support, and resilience following medical error on Ireland’s national public radio, RTÉ Radio 1 (July 9, 2017).

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an organization that aims to improve healthcare systems worldwide. The IHI published Safety is Personal: Partnering with Patients an Families for the Safest Care, a report on patient safety and quality. This report provides specific action steps for healthcare providers and policy makers to establish patient and family engagement in various dimensions of healthcare.

The NPSF Lucian Leape Institute Roundtable on Transparency published “Shining a Light: Safer Healthcare Through Transparency,” a report focused on being honest in four healthcare settings: between healthcare workers and patients; between healthcare professionals and the institutions; between institutions; and between institutions and the greater public. Transparency is defined as “the free flow of information that is open to the scrutiny of others,” and it is related with better healthcare outcomes, decreased rates of medical mishaps, lower healthcare costs, and increased rates of patient satisfaction.

The Charter on Medical Professionalism, endorsed by the US Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, requires physicians to engage in honest communication with their patients, especially regarding risks and benefits regarding medical procedures. However, researchers found that not all physicians abided by these rules which raises the concern that physicians may not fully disclose pertinent information with their patients, so they do not receive complete information. Honest communication between patients and their physicians is associated with patient comfort and willingness to move forward in medical procedures.

The Beryl Institute is a community of practice with the goals of improving patient care and experience though teamwork and share values. The institute define patient experience as the sum of all interactions, influenced by an institution’s culture, that impact patient perceptions of healthcare. Among the Beryl Institute’s various goals to improve patient experience and care, they are committed to prioritizing patients, families, and care providers first; emphasizing the importance of the entire healthcare team; and engaging a variety of perceptions and voices from various sectors.

In April 2012, Glenn Clarkson died after a medical error at a rural Kansas hospital. Melissa and Nancy Clarkson describe the three-and-a-half-years of work it took for them to learn what happened in his medical care. Filmed at the Communication and Resolution Program (CRP) Training.

The Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement is a network based at the University of Washington, Seattle, composed of the physicians, attorneys, and insurers who pioneered the earliest CRPs in the United States. It is our belief that communication-and-resolution programs (CRPs) are an essential strategy for preventing medical errors and cultivating high-quality, patient-centered healthcare. Our mission is to radically accelerate the adoption of CRPs nationally and internationally, particularly through education, training, and hands-on support.

This report from the Betsy Lehman Center details two sets of research findings and proposes a coordinated response through which Massachusetts’s providers, policymakers, and public can accelerate safety and quality improvement and lead the nation on this urgent health care challenge.

The Handbook of Communication and Social Interaction Skills is a holistic guide that draws form theories and surveys to improve communication and social interaction skills in various environments and settings. This handbook is divided into five sections: theoretical and methodological concepts (gaining and assessing skills); basic social interaction skills; persuading, informing, and supporting skills; various relationship skills (marriages, friendships, and romances); and skills necessary for public leadership and management (teaching and supervising).

University of Michigan Health System developed the Michigan Model. This approach involves reducing and acknowledging medical errors through open communication between the patient and health institution, peer-reviewing the complaints to analyze the cause of the adverse event and how to prevent it in the future, and meeting with the patient and legal counsel to discuss the adverse event. With these implementations, the University of Michigan Health System successfully helped reduce the number of malpractice accusation against physicians, medical error fees, and total time it takes to manage a malpractice claim. Thus, the University of Michigan Health System is a leading innovator in increasing patient care and safety while also decreasing the adverse outcomes associated with medical malpractices.

Medical errors not only negatively affect patients involved but also healthcare workers, to the point that they have been dubbed “second victim” due to the psychological and emotional stress caused from the event. In this study, researchers examined how healthcare workers recover from medical errors. Recovery methods include receiving emotional first aid, re-developing a sense of integrity, and learning to cope with the negative event.

The Medstar’s Patient Safety and Quality Program included this video in their patient safety and care program. This video illustrates the story of Michael Skolnik, who lost his life due to medical malpractice. The error involved the surgeon not being completely transparent with the patient or his family about the surgical procedure. This video emphasizes the importance of shared decision making between patients, families, and physicians to avoid future adverse medical outcomes, especially ones in which lives are lost.

The objective of this study was to determine whether a communication-and-resolution program (CRP) to adverse patient events is correlated with changed in medical litigation actions and outcomes.  Researchers found that the implementation of a communication and optimal resolution (CANDOR) program was most successful. These programs consist of methods for effectively identifying an event, investigation, resolution, and care for healthcare providers. The CANDOR program was correlated with long-lasting fiscal and clinical improvements. It also helped increase incident report rates, as well as decrease the number of litigation and malpractice claims and fees.

Patient and family emotional harm after medical errors may be profound. At an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conference to establish a research agenda on this topic, the authors used visual images as a gateway to personal reflections among diverse stakeholders. Themes identified included chaos and turmoil, profound isolation, organizational denial, moral injury and betrayal, negative effects on families and communities, importance of relational skills, and healing effects of human connection. The exercise invited storytelling, enabled psychological safety, and fostered further collaborative discussion. The authors discuss implications for quality/safety, educational innovation, and qualitative research.

The Joint Commission’s Framework for Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Action Plan offers a holistic outline of questions used for healthcare organizations to analyze adverse events in the workplace. Questions include identifying specific protocols in the procedure, external factors, staffing numbers, and other factors that could have potentially influenced the adverse outcome.

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.

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.