Doctor's Failure to Admit Medical Errors - Who is to Blame?

Rob Curtiss

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

In the past several years, many articles have been written about the overwhelming failure of medical professionals to admit errors made in the course of their practice. Many people blame trial lawyers for this phenomenon. The assumption that underlies this position is that doctors would be forthright about their mistakes if they weren't faced with the specter of being sued.

I can think of at least three other reasons that doctors won't admit errors to their patients. One is that physicians are just people and there are a certain percentage of people in all professions who can't accept responsibility for errors. This particular character flaw is certainly not unique to doctors but neither are they immune from it.

Another reason is that the medical profession is still invested in having young doctors work ungodly hours, often one hundred hours a week and more. It is common sense that anyone working under these conditions will make mental and/or physical mistakes. Yet some doctors seem to believe that being honest about medical errors would be an indictment of the system they all came up through.

Finally, hospital risk management departments and insurance companies obviously play a role in this phenomenon. These entities have an interest in avoiding litigation as well as patient complaints. So it is not surprising that they discourage doctors from admitting negligence. For more on this topic see: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51414

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.