Milbank Quarterly Article on Disclosure Calls for Broad-Based Educational Campaign

The recently released Milbank Quarterly Article entitled, "Disclosure, Apology, and Offer Programs: Stakeholders' Views of Barriers to and Strategies for Broad Implementation" is a very interesting read for people working on implementing disclosure programs within individual hospitals and insurers as well as those advocating for disclosure across a region or state. The paper clicks through all the commonly perceived barriers to disclosure, and I think it does a good job of dispelling these supposed barriers.   It's an important paper for the disclosure movement.  Good paper to keep handy the next time someone says, "Well, disclosure can't work because....."

When reading the paper, I was especially heartened by the authors' call for a broad-based educational campaign to educate stakeholders about disclosure.  Well, as you know, there has been a pretty good PR and education campaign with healthcare, insurance, and legal professionals over the last seven years.  The one missing piece of the puzzle has been patients and families, until now.

Last week Sorry Works! launched a comprehensive campaign to educate patients and families about disclosure, apology, and life after potential medical errors.  Not only will this campaign be valuable for patients and families, but it can also be a valuable third party resource for hospitals and insurers struggling to deal with patients and families angered after potential medical errors.  You know, many patients and families don't know want to do post-event...many don't understand what is truly (and truly not) a medical error, and sometimes they run away just like doctors and nurses.  This campaign will be a huge help.

At the heart of our educational campaign is the book, "Did the Doctor Make a Mistake," available both as an e-book and hard copy.

We also have a downloadable flyer as well as large collection of YouTube videos geared towards patients and families.

Please check out our campaign materials and help spread the word, so that we educate all stakeholders, especially the patients and families.