0:01

Many states have put into place

0:05

specific laws that are intended to reduce the barriers

0:10

to, that are intended to help facilitate the communication

0:14

around errors by creating

0:20

laws that make our statements

0:24

about the errors to patients

0:26

and families inadmissible as evidence in court of laws.

0:30

So these are well intended, but they're deeply flawed.

0:33

They're highly variable.

0:35

And most of the states have what's called partial apology

0:39

laws that protect statements of sympathy, condolence

0:42

and commiseration, but they don't protect

0:47

statements of apologies or direct responsibility

0:51

or admissions of fault.

0:53

The few states that do have laws

0:55

that protect those fuller statements are called full

0:57

apology law states.

1:00

And it turns out, particularly in the partial apology law,

1:04

states that, sorry, may not be enough to bring patients

1:09

and families from bringing lawsuits,

1:11

particularly when they have sustained significant

1:14

financial setbacks.

1:15

And we know from good data that many patients

1:20

and families experience significant financial setbacks in

1:24

the setting of medical errors.

1:28

And so if the,

1:31

if the apology even the most sincere

1:33

and well done apology does not, is not accompanied

1:37

by an offer of compensation, it may not work

1:41

to offset the likelihood of a, of, of a, of li of a

1:46

liability action.

1:47

And in fact, work that's been done on this has shown

1:50

that these state laws may actually have a perverse effect on

1:55

malpractice liability risk

1:56

because more patients are being told about the, uh, the,

2:00

the, the adverse events absent any offers of compensation.

2:05

And the concern is that these may have a potentially

2:07

chilling effect on patients, uh, uh,

2:09

the physicians apologizing to patient patients.

2:12

But the solution proposed is not to revoke the apology laws

2:16

or not to make the, the, the, the disclosures,

2:19

but rather to promote apologies through what's called

2:23

specific apology and disclosure programs.

2:27

And in the next segment of this talk, we will discuss

2:30

what these programs actually look like.