Gag Orders at UW Medicine...home of the Collaborative??

The Collaborative for Accountability & Improvement (the Collaborative), a leading research, advocacy, and consulting organization in the disclosure movement, is based at UW Medicine (University of Washington). Collaborative staff sport UW email accounts, and the group's website proudly displays "UW Medicine" in the upper right-hand corner of their banner.  The Collaborative charges thousands of dollars for consulting that they claim will teach you how to create a disclosure or CRP program at your hospital. 

We would like to suggest a potential consulting client for the Collaborative: UW Medicine.

Earlier this year, we shared that UW Medicine has been hit with several lawsuits for events that appeared to be prime candidates for disclosure and apology, but these cases were allegedly handled with deny and defend litigation strategies.  We asked why UW Medicine was not eating the Collaborative's cooking...and If UW was not eating the Collaborative's cooking why should any other hospital pay thousands for their content and advice? 

Well, this summer, NBC News released a report that should raise more questions about the curious marriage between the Collaborative and UW Medicine.  In short, the crew at NBC made UW Medicine the poster child for gag orders in med-mal settlements -- and why this practice is morally sickening, especially for an institution that is supposedly supportive of the disclosure movement.   Gag orders, or confidentiality clauses or NDAs, threaten families with legal action unless they remain quiet about their cases.  Gag orders are an anathema to transparency, patient safety, and the healing process offered by disclosure & apology. 

NBC News interviewed several lawyers who questioned the enforceability or validity of gag orders or confidentiality clauses for public hospitals like UW given that such institutions are subject to transparency laws. Indeed, it was easy for NBC News to find the following dirty laundry that UW Medicine allegedly attempted to cover up with gag orders: 

• A newborn who suffered severe brain damage because doctors allegedly failed to properly monitor his heart rate during childbirth ($14 million).

• A man who died after doctors allegedly misdiagnosed and improperly treated a cancerous mass in his face and neck ($6 million).

• A girl left with permanent cognitive disabilities after a doctor who operated on her face allegedly left bone fragments behind in her skull, causing a catastrophic stroke ($11 million).  

All told, NBC News claims to have found gag orders, or confidentiality clauses or NDAs, included in 70 of 89 med-mal settlements negotiated by UW Medicine from 2015 to 2023.  

One lawyer claimed gag clauses were simply "intimidation clauses."  At Sorry Works!, we published a report several years ago stating that gag orders would present a PR nightmare for any hospital or healthcare organization trying to claw back dollars from a family working to shed light on bad care and improve patient safety.  Yet, the NBC story noted several families and attorneys who clammed up because of the gag orders.

So, here we have UW Medicine, home to the Collaborative, telling injured patients and grieving families to...er....uh....keep their mouths shut. Take your money and beat it.  

UW Medicine's spokesperson had the following response to NBC News:

“Like many health care organizations, including publicly owned organizations, UW asks for confidentiality in order to achieve finality and certainty when a claim concludes,” Gregg said in a statement.

“Confidentiality clauses are a standard industry practice.”

Is your blood boiling yet? So, claiming gag orders are "standard industry practice" is a plausible defense for a hospital system that publicly supports transparency?  Everyone else sins, so why shouldn't we?  What's the big deal? 

Why is the Collaborative even based at UW Medicine?  Why isn't the Collaborative housed at another organization that actually does disclosure and lives the principles they espouse?   Will the Collaborative issue a public statement criticizing UW Medicine and calling for reform?  And. again, why would anyone pay thousands to the Collaborative for consulting when they (the Collaborative) apparently can't even get their host institution to act in a humane and ethical fashion post-event?  

This column will finish in the much same manner as the column earlier this year regarding the lawsuits filed against UW Medicine: Some may think this column is a pot shot, which is their prerogative. Indeed, Sorry Works! conducts research, advocacy, and offers consulting in the same space as the Collaborative.  However, this e-newsletter is not about money or prestige, but, instead, is all about what is best for the patients and families of UW Medicine, and patients and families everywhere.  I believe any reform movement only reaches excellence and sustains change when criticisms can be aired.  Hopefully, this e-newsletter will lead to discussions within the Collaborative and, most importantly, UW Medicine.  Something needs to be done in Seattle.  The Collaborative should focus its considerable resources on UW Medicine.  

Sincerely,

- Doug

Doug Wojcieszak, MA, MS
Founder, Sorry Works!
618-559-8168