80. The False Assumption of Apologizing for Medical Mistakes

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There’s no denying that mistakes happen in medicine. When they do, what’s the next step? Business as usual is to deny and defend. Not only is this an adversarial and destructive process, it is also a lost opportunity to learn (and for the patient/family to fully understand what happened). In this episode, we explore a novel approach that shifts thinking from ‘risk management’ to ‘patient management’, which some argue is profoundly better for all parties involved in a medical error- clinicians, patients, and systems. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Guest Bio: Peter Smulowitz MD is an expert in health policy and author of</span> <a href= "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3530738/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Disclosure, apology, and offer programs: stakeholders' views of barriers to and strategies for broad implementation.</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;"> He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer, Milford Regional Medical Center and is an Associate Professor of emergency medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School.</span></p> <p><strong>Interested in one-on-one coaching? Learn more at</strong> <a href= "https://roborman.com"><strong>roborman.com</strong></a></p> <p><strong>To support the show - our Patreon site</strong> <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/stimuluspod"><strong>https://www.patreon.com/stimuluspod</strong></a></p> <p><strong>For full shownotes visit</strong> <a href= "https://roborman.com/category/stimulus/"><strong>our podcast page</strong></a></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We Discuss:</span></p> <ul> <li>The status quo for the way we handle mistakes creates multiple victims, but no winners.  <span style= "font-weight: 400;">[03:30]</span></li> <li>It was the aftermath of an unfortunate case that sparked Smulowitz’ interest in this subject. It motivated him to try to make systems better so that others did not have to go through the same trauma. <span style="font-weight: 400;">[06:30]</span></li>