Delivering the truth: challenges and opportunities for error disclosure in obstetrics.
Disclosing harmful medical errors to patients is a prominent component of the patient safety movement. Patients expect it and safety agencies and experts advocate its implementation. Obstetrics presents unique challenges to carrying out disclosure recommendations: childbirth is a life-changing, emotionally charged, and dynamic family event characterized by high expectations and unpredictability, and perinatal care is provided by complex ad hoc teams in a litigious area of medicine. Despite these challenges, transparent communication with parents about unexpected adverse birth outcomes remains critical. We call on clinicians and professional societies to pursue a deeper understanding of the unique challenges of disclosure in obstetrics and prepare themselves to conduct these difficult conversations well.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Social Medicine, Center for Bioethics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and the Departments of General Internal Medicine, Neonatology, and Medicine, Bioethics & Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
Leslie
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Carranza
Anne Drapkin
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Lyerly
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Carolyn D
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David
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Loren
Thomas H
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Gallagher
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D061214:Patient Safety; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D014342:Truth Disclosure / Q000941:ethics*; D014481:United States