My Life as a 20ish Single

In 40 years as a highly regarded cancer surgeon, Dr. Tapas K. Das Gupta had never made a mistake like this.

As with any doctor, there had been occasional errors in diagnosis or judgement. But never, he said, had he opened up a patient and removed the wrong sliver of tissue, in this case a segment of the eighth rib instead of the ninth.

Once an X-ray provided proof in black and white, Dr. Das Gupta, the 74-year-old chairman of surgical oncology at the University of Illinois Medical Centre at Chicago, did something that would normally make hospital lawyers cringe; he acknowledged his mistake to his patient's face, and told her he was deeply sorry.

"After all these years I cannot give you any excuse whatsoever," Dr. Das Gupta, now 76, said he told the woman and her husband. "It is just one of those things that occurred. I have to some extent harmed you."

For decades, malpractice lawyers and insurers have counselled doctors and hospitals to "deny and defend." Many still warn clients that any admission of fault, is likely to invite litigation and imperil careers.

But with providers choking on malpractice costs and consumers demanding action against medical errors, a handful of prominent academic medical centres, like John Hopkins and Standford, are trying a disarming approach.

By promptly disclosing medical errors and offering earnest apologies and fair compensation, they hope to restore integrity to dealings with patients, make it easier to learn from mistakes and dilute anger that often fuels lawsuits.

Malpractice lawyers say that what often transforms a reasonable patient into an indignant plaintiff is less an error than its concealment, and the victim's concern that it will happen again.

Despite some projections that disclosure would prompt a flood of lawsuits, hospitals are reporting decreases in their caseloads and savings in legal costs. Malpractice premiums have declined in some instances, though market forces may be partly responsible.

an excerpt from NYT - Doctors Start to Say 'I'm Sorry' Long Before 'See You in Court'