Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2009
Disclosing medical errors to patients: it's not what you say, it's what they hear.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- Frequency, Expected Effects, Obstacles, and Facilitators of Disclosure of Patient Safety Incidents: A Systematic Review.Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi · 2017Pooled it
- Interventions for improving patients' trust in doctors and groups of doctors.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- On the Influence of Apologies on the Likelihood of Lawsuits in Cases of Perceived Medical Negligence: Analysis of Archival and Experimental Data.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Review
- The Patient, the Physician, or the Relationship: Who or What Is "Difficult", Exactly? an Approach for Managing Conflicts between Patients and Physicians.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Patient and caregiver factors in ambulatory incident reports: a mixed-methods analysis.BMJ open quality · 2021Article
- Nurses' Experiences with Disclosure of Patient Safety Incidents: A Qualitative Study.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2020Article
- American Pharmacists Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Medication Error Disclosure.Innovations in pharmacy · 2020Article
- Second victims in health care: current perspectives.Advances in medical education and practice · 2019Article
- Do Written Disclosures of Serious Events Increase Risk of Malpractice Claims? One Health Care System's Experience.Journal of patient safety · 2018Article
- Complications: acknowledging, managing, and coping with human error.Translational andrology and urology · 2017Review
- Article
- Obligation towards medical errors disclosure at a tertiary care hospital in Dubai, UAE.The International journal of risk & safety in medicine · 2016Article
- The role of emotion in patient safety: Are we brave enough to scratch beneath the surface?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2016Review
- The right to be informed and fear of disclosure: sustainability of a full error disclosure policy at an Italian cancer centre/clinic.BMC health services research · 2015Article
- Addressing medical errors in hand surgery.The Journal of hand surgery · 2014Article
- Disclosure of adverse events in the United States and Canada: an update, and a proposed framework for improvement.Journal of public health research · 2013Review
- A case of error disclosure: a communication privacy management analysis.Journal of public health research · 2013Review
- ESR communication guidelines for radiologists.Insights into imaging · 2013Article
- Toward patient-centered cancer care: patient perceptions of problematic events, impact, and response.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is consensus that patients should be told if they are injured by medical care. However, there is little information on how they react to different methods of disclosure.
objectiveTo determine if volunteers' reactions to videos of physicians disclosing adverse events are related to the physician apologizing and accepting responsibility.
designSurvey of viewers randomized to watch videos of disclosures of three adverse events (missed mammogram, chemotherapy overdose, delay in surgical therapy) with designed variations in extent of apology (full, non-specific, none) and acceptance of responsibility (full, none).
participantsAdult volunteer sample from the general community in Baltimore. MEASUREMENTS: Viewer evaluations of physicians in the videos using standardized scales.
resultsOf 200 volunteers, 50% were <40 years, 25% were female, 80% were African American, and 50% had completed high school. For designed variations, scores were non-significantly higher for full apology/responsibility, and lower for no apology/no responsibility. Perceived apology or responsibility was related to significantly higher ratings (chi-square, 81% vs. 38% trusted; 56% vs. 27% would refer, p < 0.05), but inclination to sue was unchanged (43% vs. 47%). In logistic regression analyses adjusting for age, gender, race and education, perceived apology and perceived responsibility were independently related to higher ratings for all measures. Inclination to sue was reduced non-significantly.
conclusionsPatients will probably respond more favorably to physicians who apologize and accept responsibility for medical errors than those who do not apologize or give ambiguous responses. Patient perceptions of what is said may be more important than what is actually said. Desire to sue may not be affected despite a full apology and acceptance of responsibility.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.