While New York is not one of the states that gives protection to medical professionals who apologize for a medical error, some facilities and practitioners around the country have noted that saying “I’m sorry” often reduces the risk of a lawsuit. In the past, the more common practice has been denial, but apologizing is becoming more common.
While New York is not one of the states that gives protection to medical professionals who apologize for a medical error, some facilities and practitioners around the country have noted that saying “I’m sorry” often reduces the risk of a lawsuit. In the past, the more common practice has been denial, but apologizing is becoming more common.
In one case, a woman whose toddler died after an alarm in a hospital was accidentally turned off was apologized to by a staff that admitted the error and did not file a lawsuit. She became a consultant for the hospital on the subject of medical errors. However, in another case, a woman had the wrong rib removed during an operation. The surgeon lied about what had gone wrong. In that case, the woman filed a lawsuit.
The case also raised an additional question about the safety of electronic health records and procedures that rely on computers. The woman believes that the error in her case happened because there was a radiographic imaging outage. However, although there has been some discussion of the dangers of IT problems in medicine, there is no mandatory system in place for reporting IT-related errors. This means that no one knows how serious the problem is.
When a medical facility or professional refuses to even admit any wrongdoing, patients or their family can be left in a position where they are responsible for additional medical expenses. In some cases, the patient’s life might even be endangered. When this occurs, the patient might want to have the assistance of attorney in seeking compensation for the damages caused by the failure to exhibit a reasonable standard of care.
