Dr Pilar Ortega joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Drs Glenn Martínez, Marco A. Alemán, Alejandra Zapién-Hidalgo, and Tiffany M. Shin: “Recognizing and Dismantling Raciolinguistic Hierarchies in Latinx Health.”
Although poor communication is the root cause of medical malpractice claims, in cases of medical error, apologies reduce litigation and benefit patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(3):289-295. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.3.hlaw1-1703.
Acknowledging errors and the manner in which they occur both enables doctors to hold themselves accountable and promotes understanding that can lead to error prevention.
Do some pernicious patient safety problems remain unresolved, even after systems changes, because health care professionals are not personally held accountable for their failure to meet standards?