Not if the lawyers have their way:
Providence lawyer Steven Minicucci, who handles malpractice suits, said that displays of compassion are rarely useful in building such cases. But an apology and an admission of error could be key evidence. He opposes the Rhode Island legislation.“I like to call it the’I'm sorry I killed your mother’ bill,” Minicucci said. “If a doctor comes out and says something like that, he shouldn’t be able to immunize himself against statements like that by couching it in an apology.”
Trial lawyers also call Rhode Island’s bill unfair and overly broad because it could bar some internal hospital reports on medical errors from becoming evidence.
Update:
Overlawyered with more.
Related posts:
- How about some lawyer reporting?
- Poll: Is further reducing resident work hours worth the cost?
- Does sorry really work?
- An apology for medical errors, this lawyer says don’t do it
- Sorry doesn’t work all the time
- What it’s like to be sued
- Why doctors get zero respect from the government
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{ 9 comments }
Same story. But a different take from an attorney’s blog: More Doctors Encouraged To Say “I’m Sorry”
–ET
Noting the comments of Mr. Turkewitz on his blog on the apology issue, I think a distinction has to be made between apologizing and admitting liability. It is perfectly appropriate, in the event of a bad outcome, for the providers to express regret, compassion, sympathy and understanding in the context of an apology. It is not in the providers best interests to use words that could be construed as an admission of liability. This may sound like semantics, but such distinctions may be lost on laypeople and would certainly be used against the providers in court.
Would Mr. Turkewitz want one of his clients at the scene of an accident to say: “I really screwed up by texting on my cell phone while driving, and I sure am sorry about how I committed an egregrious error by running over that little old lady”. This would be an admission against interest that few, if any lawyers would recommend for their client.
SORRY REALLY WORKS MY PCP SAID HE WAS SO SORRY, YOU KNOW WHAT HE IS HUMAN. HUMANS MAKE MISTAKES, OUR FAMILY REALLY VALUED THAT HE WAS HEART FELT SORRY. WE DID NOT SUE.THE DR. DID ALL HE COULD, HUMANLY COULD. PERHAPS DOCTORS NEED TO REMEMBER THEY ARE HUMAN, NOT GOD.IF THEY ARE REALLY CONNECTED ON A PERSONAL LEVEL WITH THEIR PATIENTS SORRY WORKS. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT???
I think anon 5:45 has it about right. I think many Doctor’s have such a God complex that the idea of apologizing would never occur to them. their lack of accepting any responsibility is exactly why they get sued.
When doc’s can get off their high horse and start to admit to making mistakes then less of them will get sued. you bring it on yoruself, not by what mistake you have made, but by your attitudes.
“I’m sorry” is not a technique to avoid a lawsuit that is to be judge on whether or not it “works”. It is the most basic and fundamental human response to regretable outcomes and the only possible path to repairing or maintaining a relationship in such cases.
Long before “I’m sorry”, legislation, back when the malpractice insurers were all saying don’t do it, I was taught by wise elderly teachers to be honest and genuine with patients and their families, and that meant to express regrets when things go badly and to apologize when I screw up. Fortunately, I have only had to do the later in the face of serious consequences on a few occasions, but in no case have I regreted discussing my error honestly. Painful but healing, and while I may get served 5 minutes from now, it’s been 20 years and I haven’t been sued yet. It was not done as a ploy to escape a lawsuit, in fact it was done with the assumption that, if there were a lawsuit, it would undermine the defense. It was done because it is the right thing to do when one human being harms another and is sorry for that. It is right for the doctor and right for the patient in that it helps facilitate forgiveness which is far healthier for the soul than vengence.
Problem with “expressing regret” while “avoiding any admission of liability” is that it results in comments like this one, which I received from a health care administrator several years ago:
“I’m sorry you feel the way you do.”
Honestly, I’d rather have received no “sympathy” at all if that’s the best they could do. The comment actually made me angrier than the “bad outcome” which precipitated it.
“I’m sorry you feel the way you do.”
That is a 7-Up apology. The “unapology”. The subtext appended to is:
“I’m sorry you feel the way you do. I am not sorry for what I have done for wouldn’t I say so if I were. But in fact, I have made no mistakes. You are a sniveling whiney butt who should just cease to exist, for then you wouldn’t have any feelings and I wouldn’t have to speak to inferior babyfied serfs like yourself. I am the Master of the Universe, an Ubermensch, a Lion whose natural destiny is to prey on such as you. If you had a proper view of your place, you would bask in my greatness an accept my predatory action in your life with gratitude for the attention you receive. But instead you whine and expect me to listen to it, which is why I regret that you feel the way you do.
I’m not a fan of trial lawyers and support efforts to curtail malpractice judgments. However, the current crop of “I’m sorry” sorry legislation that is pending in states is a way for physicians to escape any accountability. A doctor can say, “I’m sorry your mother died” and that’s good enough. They don’t even need to say, “I’m sorry I killed your mother.”
These laws allow physicians to keep patients at arms length and shield them from accountability. These laws are bad for patient health.
More on the topic:
http://pharm-aid.blogspot.com/2007/04/shielding-doctors-from-accountability.html
Get the facts. Nothing in these laws shield doctors for liability from any malpractice. They just limit the use of the fact that the doctor said he was sorry for how things turned out as itself evidence of malpractice.
One can still sue on the facts of the case, simply not present an apology as a mea culpa.
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