This is true nomatter what your job is. own up to your mistakes imidailty, and start workign to correct the issue. things will be much better accepted then if you deny and cover things up.
"But that's the point. When a mistake is made, admit it, clean up the mess, and move on."
Now who else might have benefited by that good advice? 
When possible (and I can only think of a few isolated cases where it isn't possible), transparency works, and not just in medicine. A well-contructed policy of transparency heads off problems before they start, empowers all stakeholders, increases efficiency, and builds credibility and trust.
In the book blink there is a whole section on malpractice, and how bedside manner and tone of voice was the single strongest factor along with how many minutes the doc actually spends talking to a patient that determines if someone will sue or not.
A bumbling family doctor with a second rate education, that may make a huge mistake, but who is sweet and kind and spends a ton of time talking to his patients is MUCH LESS likely to be sued than a fancy skilled doctor who may have an arrogant attitude and who spends only a few short minutes talking to a patient.
In fact the researchers even plaid with recordings of the doctors voices, when you could not even distinguish individual words... if you could only hear tone of voice, the subjects could pick which doctor had or would be sued more... with amazing accuracy.
Things go wrong, shit happens, but a kind attitude and a general desire to make it right goes a long way.
(by the way, Jesse, you might want to lose the "grocer's apostrophes" in the title and third paragraph)
one of the things i am proudest about my soon to be a doctor daughter is that she seems to have focused on rural general practice as where she wants to take her skills. i know it can all change when she begins doing her internship rotations and residency. for right now though she is readying to spend a second summer in a mobile clinic that travels to the most remote parts of the rez bringing basic health services to people who would otherwise face long hard drives over bad roads.
she also is using the time to seek out traditional healers, seeking plant secrets.
i really got wowed when she came back last summer. she took a geologist's hammer to a piece of obsidian, held up a flake and said "put this on a wooden handle and you have a scalpel."
amazing girl.
assembly line surgeons working in faceless hospitals, residents stumbling through the business end of a 72 hour shift, that's where the mistakes happen the most. the doctors who are treating the truly sick, or truly injured, aren't the ones who are making the mistakes. it's the guys who are trying to fit one more lucrative procedure into a crowded day.
isn't it amazing though, that these folks treat as news something so simple, and basic?
wow. a doctor makes a mistake. tells the truth about the mistake and tries, in a reasonable fashion to make things right. it's disturbing that this is behavior regarded as new or different.
OTD -
Thanks. Fixed.
That's what happens when I post at 5:30 in the morning when I'm normally sound asleep. *sighs*
Thanks again.
I had major esophageal surgery 3 years ago for a rare condition. During the surgery, the anesthesiologist accidentally punctured my esophagus with an instrument of some sort. It took my surgeon an extra 2 hours to fix that puncture on top of an already complicated surgery.
When I was back in my room, my surgeon stopped by and told me the procedure was a success, but then she told me about the little accident. I was pleasantly surprised with the honesty. But mistakes do happen sometimes. I was fine with it as there wouldn't be any long term implications. Then she told me, that because of the accident, I had to have the N/G tube in my throat for an extra 3 days. That's when I wanted to kill her.
I suppose mistakes that kill people will still be covered up.
wengler, it's called burial.
At the University of Michigan Health System, one of the first to experiment with full disclosure, existing claims and lawsuits dropped to 83 in August 2007 from 262 in August 2001, said Richard C. Boothman, the medical center’s chief risk officer.
“Improving patient safety and patient communication is more likely to cure the malpractice crisis than defensiveness and denial,” Mr. Boothman said.
Mr. Boothman emphasized that he could not know whether the decline was due to disclosure or safer medicine, or both. But the hospital’s legal defense costs and the money it must set aside to pay claims have each been cut by two-thirds, he said. The time taken to dispose of cases has been halved.
Ironic, considering the fact that I trained at the University of Michigan School of Medicine and while on the Thoracic Surgery rotation witnessed a surgical error by one of the world's most renowned "T" surgeons. The matter was quickly hushed up beginning with the senior surgeon sending the junior attending out to head me and my fellow third year off, and keep us from giving the post-surgery report to the patient's family. A privilege (chore?) that, back in those days, was laid on the shoulders of the scut bunnies (aka medical students). This kind of shit happened all the time, and still does - particularly at tthe major teaching institutions. I've always felt that if you made a non-life threatening error and fessed up to it, with a plan to correct it, you were much less likely to have a frantic and enraged family coming after you with a malpractice lawsuit, than if you attempted to hide or deny any such error.
"Less Lawsuits?" YAAARRRGGGH! How that grates, Jesse. The term is "FEWER Lawsuits," fewer always describing a plural (at least thass what I think).
---Your friendly pedant
Fewer lawsuits is fine (and correct) for body copy.
Less Lawsuits is catchy, which is what you want in the Headline or Slug. (This was the Headline.)
The point of both the Slug and Headline, obviously, is to get readers to read the article. In the article, we attempt to use appropriate grammar. Slugs and Headlines... not so much.
I do, however, always, appreciate the touch of those whom, as I do, live and breath grammar and stylebooks.
*smiles*
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