The NY Times on saying sorry

The Times doesn’t often take an editorial stance sympathetic to the plight of physicians, so their opinion on “Sorry Works” is somewhat surprising:

Most victims of malpractice never sue, and there is some evidence that many patients who do sue were not harmed by a physician’s error but instead suffered an adverse medical outcome that could not have been prevented . . .

. . . To encourage greater candor, more than 30 states have enacted laws making apologies for medical errors inadmissible in court. That sounds like a sensible step that should be adopted by other states or become federal law.