The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America’s health care system. AHRQ develops the knowledge, tools, and data needed to improve the health care system and help Americans, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed health decisions.

The Apology and Disclosure Grand Rounds NWH incorporates a video simulated error and a presentation about “When Things Go Wrong”. The presentation discusses disclosure coaching & peer support, the emotional impact of errors on clinicians, and principles for transparent & compassionate disclosure and apology.

Background
Many health care organizations want to improve their responses to patients who suffer medical injuries. Their ability to understand how well they meet patients’ needs is limited by the lack of suitable instruments for assessing injured patients’ experiences.
Methods
This study aimed to generate items for a patient experience questionnaire that medical facilities can use to assess how well resolution met patients’ needs. The Medical Injury Reconciliation Experiences Survey (MIRES) was based on findings from previous studies of New Zealand and American patients’ experiences of non-litigation resolution of medical injuries. The researchers performed a content analysis of 24 transcripts from a stratified random sample of 92 interviews from the prior studies. Themes were extracted to develop a draft questionnaire, which was revised following feedback from experts. Cognitive debriefing interviews were conducted with 24 New Zealand and American injured patients.
Results
There were 40 items in the following domains: perceptions of communications with health care providers after the injury (15 items), perceptions of remedial gestures (11 items), indicia of the patient’s overall satisfaction with the reconciliation process (4 items), the nature and impacts of the injury (5 items), and patients’ characteristics (5 items). Participants’ feedback about the questionnaire was predominantly positive. Their suggestions led to 37 revisions.
Conclusion
The MIRES was comprehensible and acceptable to this group of post-injury patients. While further testing is desirable, the MIRES offers promise as a practicable approach that health care organizations can use to assess how well their reconciliation processes met patients’ needs.

Medical errors are associated with significant emotional, financial, physical and sociobehavioural impacts including reduced trust and willingness to seek healthcare. These impacts can last for years. The study sought to understand whether greater open communication is associated with reduced emotional impacts and decreased avoidance of doctors/facilities involved in the error.

Resources for patients and families in need of information and support after a medical error or adverse medical event.

Webinar Date: February, 2021

Overview: COVID-19 has fundamentally altered our care processes and standards.  Care is being delayed, visits are happening by telemedicine, there are changes in how staff are deployed and interact with patients, and everyone is exhausted and emotionally depleted. These all make potential for patient harm events higher.  COVID-19 is also adding stress to already tightening medical professional liability insurance market. While it may be tempting to abandon ship when it comes to implementing CRP during COVID-19 times, CRPs are more important now than ever.  Fundamental principles of the CRP model-supporting patients, families, and clinicians after harm with open communication, empathy, learning, and accountability – are critical elements of how we respond to COVID-related harm events.  This webinar examines two cases of COVID-associated adverse events to help lead a discussion on the challenging aspects in implementing CRPs during this time.

Presenters: Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, and Thomas H. Gallagher, MD

Commentary by: Jeffrey Catalano, JD, Marcia Rhodes, Jonathan Steward, JD, MS, RN-BC, CEN, CPHRM

Learning Objectives: 

• Examine potential communication and legal issues associated with COVID-related harm events
• Describe how CRPs can be used as a strategy to address these COVID-related adverse events
• Learn about CRP resources to help address COVID-related challenges

From the Canadian Patient Safety Institute

Prevent Patient Safety Incidents and Minimize Harm When They Do Occur
When a patient’s safety is compromised, or even if someone just comes close to having an incident, you need to know you are taking the right measures to address it, now and in the future. CPSI provides you with practical strategies and resources to manage incidents effectively and keep your patients safe. This integrated toolkit considers the needs and concerns of patients and their families, and how to properly engage them throughout the process.

Drawn from the best available evidence and expert advice, this newly designed toolkit is for those responsible for managing patient safety, quality improvement, risk management, and staff training in any healthcare setting.

The Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) process is a patient-centered approach used by health care institutions and practitioners to respond in a timely, thorough, and just way when unexpected patient harm events occur. It focuses on early disclosure of adverse events and a proactive method to achieving an amicable resolution for the patient/family and health care providers.

The video demonstrates an example of the care team’s disclosure meeting conversation with the affected family.

The Patient Notification Toolkit was developed to address injection and contagion control malpractice, which occurs in various healthcare settings, such hospitals, and assisted living facilities. These incidents compromise the patients’ health by increasing their risk of infection. When healthcare malpractices or resulting infections are exposed, patients are notified through a detailed process carried out by state and local health departments or healthcare facilities.

Loren et al. conducted a qualitative thematic analysis following in-depth interviews with parents who believed they had experienced an adverse birth-related neonatal outcome and focus groups with healthcare providers who have communicated with parents about adverse newborn birth events. The analysis revealed six key themes characterizing the unique aspects of the birth experience and associated communication challenges:

1. High expectations for positive outcome
2. Powerful emotions
3. Rapid change and progression
4. Family involvement
5. Multiple patients and providers
6. Litigious environment

VitalTalk has released the COVID Ready Communication Skills resource to help healthcare professionals navigate COVID-19 related conversations with their patients and families.

VitalTalk is a Seattle based nonprofit organization that provides resources and training for health care clinicians in effective communication.

Despite the obvious need for open conversations with patients and their families following an adverse event, many organizations still lack the structure to support providers during this difficult time. In many cases, clinicians who have to disclose errors to patients and families fail due to lack of provider education and training, lack of confidence, fears of litigation and emotional distress.

The Ask-Tell-Ask Model focuses on successful disclosure coaching conversations. It includes:

1. Case Scenario
2. Key elements
3. Practical step-by-step strategies for disclosure coaching
4. Pedagogical model using the “Ask-Tell-Ask” approach
5. Organizational considerations for establishing a coaching program

A short video of Dr. Shapiro speaking on disclosure of medical error to patients and families. This video is part of “Choosing Wisdom: The Path Through Adversity” documentary.

The video includes three scenarios to demonstrate how different approaches to disclosure can have an effect on the course of communication with a patient’s loved one.

Disclosure Scenarios:

1. Disclosure with No Apology
2. Disclosure with Apology of Sympathy
3. Disclosure with Apology or Responsibility

Researchers studied the factors that encourage and hinder reconciliation after an adverse patient incident occurs. They also discuss recommendations for health systems to follow to approach malpractice legal cases. It was concluded that healthcare organizations should not follow a “one size fits all” approach to all adverse events that compromise patients safety. Rather, they should be flexible when approaching them so they can follow guidelines that promote the best-practice policies for patient safety and exceptional healthcare.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) started collaborating together to utilize its combined resources and knowledge to further  patient safety efforts and create safety systems in various healthcare settings.

Researchers of this article studied the long-term impacts (LTIs) of medically adverse events on families and patients years after they occurred. They found that the four main LTIs were 1) prolonged financial effects, 2) continuous anger and vivid recollections of the event, 3) changes in self-identity and health behaviors, and 4) chronic physical effects. The findings of this report emphasize the need for future research focusing on ways to help families and patients dealing with the effects of adverse health events.

The video demonstrates how medical professionals can talk about medical errors with the care team, patients and their families. It includes two disclosure scenarios and didactic lecture on disclosure.

Key points:

1. common emotional response
2. preparing for the conversation
3. the initial conversation
4. avoiding common mistakes
5. physician support

The Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement and the Foundation for Healthcare Quality hosted a two-day retreat in Seattle, Washington (09/2017) in which administrators and healthcare providers discussed ways to advance communication and resolution programs (CRPs) and other resources in Northwest Hospitals to increase patient safety and communication among hospital leadership, attorneys, and health insurers.

This website offers resources and advice if you or a loved one has been harmed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of families and patients with medically adverse incidents, as well as to understand how different healthcare organizations respond to these events. Researchers found that, following adverse events, patient satisfaction was at its peak when communication was compassionate and included discussion of compensation. Satisfaction was also at its highest when physicians attentively listened to patients without interjecting during the conversation.

Authors of this article emphasize how the “no blame” approach should be balanced with accountability when promoting patient safety in healthcare settings. However, this balance should be distributed among healthcare professionals, patients, and family members when effectively improving and promoting patient care and safety.

Improving how health care providers respond to medical injury requires an understanding of patients’ experiences. Although many injured patients strongly desire to be heard, research rarely involves them. Institutional review boards worry about harming participants by asking them to revisit traumatic events, and hospital staff worry about provoking lawsuits. Institutions’ reluctance to approve this type of research has slowed progress toward responses to injuries that are better able to meet patients’ needs. In 2015-2016, we were able to surmount these challenges and interview 92 injured patients and families in the USA and New Zealand. This article explores whether the ethical and medico-legal concerns are, in fact, well-founded. Consistent with research about trauma-research-related distress, our participants’ accounts indicate that the pervasive fears about retraumatization are unfounded. Our experience also suggests that because being heard is an important (but often unmet) need for injured patients, talking provides psychological benefits and may decrease rather than increase the impetus to sue. Our article makes recommendations to institutional review boards and researchers. The benefits to responsibly conducted research with injured patients outweigh the risks to participants and institutions.

Serious Illness Care Program COVID-19 Response Toolkit by Ariadne Labs, first version was published on April 3, 2020.

Ariadne Labs, one of Collaborative for Accountability and Improvement’s partners in cultivating high-quality, patient-centered care, has developed the Serious Illness Care Program’s COVID-19 Response Toolkit to help clinicians with difficult conversations with high risk COVID-19 patients.

Table of Contents: 

1. COVID-19 Conversation Guide for Outpatient Care
2. Telehealth Communication Tips
3. Recommendation Aid
4. Care Planning Resources

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.

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.

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.

This consensus paper of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals was prepared by clinicians, risk managers, and patients to provide an in-depth understanding of preventable adverse events, their impact on patients, families, and providers, and how to manage such events. The report provides detailed guidelines based on the premise that all care should be safe and patient-centered and that all actions require full disclosure. In addition to offering recommendations on how to effectively communicate with patients and families, the report discusses support for caregivers and a detailed strategy for institutions to respond to such events in a timely and appropriate fashion. Finally, the comprehensive report offers several appendices that include recommendations and a case study on communicating with patients and families.