Erlanger Health System Reports 66% Drop in Lawsuits with Disclosure & Apology

Erlanger Health System of Tennessee is publicly reporting a 66 percent drop in lawsuits along with a 51 percent drop in defense litigation costs and 53 percent drop in time to close cases over a 12 year time period.  These findings are in line with recent published results for the University of Michigan and University of Illinois Health Systems as well as the VA from the 1990's.  However, Erlanger is a not a closed system...some of their docs are not employed or covered by the hospital.  The study is being published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.

This another piece of strong evidence that sorry does work. A 66 percent drop in litigation for a major hospital system simply cannot be ignored.  Too often, disclosure is not implemented in a health system because leadership is too busy on other projects, or the General Counsel is not ready, or we're not sure how the docs will react, or not sure what the nurses will say or do with it (can't trust those nurses!!).  "We'll get it to next year, maybe," is the line we've heard one too many times.  But this kind of data cannot be ignored, and screams for implementation right now. 

Sorry Works! is ready to help nursing homes and hospitals design and implement successful disclosure and apology programs. Just give us a call at 618-559-8168 or email doug@sorryworks.net.  

Sincerely,

- Doug

Doug Wojcieszak, Founder, Sorry Works!