Just Say You’re Sorry!
Currently, 36 states have passed “I’m Sorry” legislation preventing physician’s expression of compassion or sympathy for medical errors to be used against them by a patient in litigation. According to the AMA, 25 percent of medical malpractice suits are the result of patients feeling intentionally misled or dismissed by their physician following a medical procedure that did not go well. A study by the University of Michigan health system investigating “I’m Sorry” laws suggests that costs are reduced by approximately 50% in states using Apology Laws. A later article out of Cornell University sheds doubt on that number but agrees that “I’m Sorry” laws mitigate the time, and therefore the cost, of bringing malpractice claims to resolution and in some cases prevents lawsuits altogether.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the “I’m Sorry” law is that it makes physicians more accessible to their patients. Not only is an increase in communication correlated to the decreasing costs of malpractice claims, it is also an essential element of the doctor-patient relationship. It’s hard to believe that it takes a law to allow doctors to talk openly about a procedure, anticipated outcomes and actual results but studies show that without “I’m Sorry” laws physicians are actually discouraged from having honest interactions with their patients.