Ethical duties in “Talking with Patients about Other Clinicians' Errors”

A recent New England Journal of Medicine Sounding Board article examined clinicians' ethical duty to address others' medical errors with patients and examines possible solutions for both physicians and institutions.

Topics addressed include post-error communication methods, meeting patients' and families' needs and new approaches to colleague-to-colleague reporting of errors. A helpful reference table describes common situations involving other clinicians and offers strategy and rationale for each clinical situation.

ACP's Ethics, Human Rights and Professionalism staff contributed to the initial workgroup that was convened and the subsequent development of the article. Sources cited in the article include the ACP Ethics Manual, an ACP case study on professionalism and the ACP paper “Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter.”