International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access originally published online on September 17, 2008
International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2008 20(6):421-432; doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzn043
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Patients' and family members' experiences of open disclosure following adverse events
1 University of Technology Sydney, Australia
2 University of Melbourne, Australia
3 University of Queensland, Australia
4 The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Objective. To explore patients' and family members' perceptions of Open Disclosure of adverse events that occurred during their health care.
Design. We interviewed 23 people involved in adverse events and incident disclosure using a semi-structured, open-ended guide. We analyzed transcripts using thematic discourse analysis.
Setting. Four States in Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
Study participants. Twenty-three participants were recruited as part of an evaluation of the Australian Open Disclosure pilot commissioned by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
Results. All participants (except one) appreciated the opportunity to meet with staff and have the adverse event explained to them. Their accounts also reveal a number of concerns about how Open Disclosure is enacted: disclosure not occurring promptly or too informally; disclosure not being adequately followed up with tangible support or change in practice; staff not offering an apology, and disclosure not providing opportunities for consumers to meet with the staff originally involved in the adverse event. Analysis of participants' accounts suggests that a combination of formal Open Disclosure, a full apology, and an offer of tangible support has a higher chance of gaining consumer satisfaction than if one or more of these components is absent.
Conclusions. Staff need to become more attuned in their disclosure communication to the victim s perceptions and experience of adverse events, to offer an appropriate apology, to support victims long-term as well as short-term, and to consider using consumers' insights into adverse events for the purpose of service improvement.
Keywords: patient satisfaction, measurement of quality, qualitative methods, discourse analysis, Open Disclosure
Address reprint requests to: Rick Iedema, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Tel: +61 2 9514 2709; Fax: +61 2 9514 2711; E-mail: r.iedema{at}uts.edu.au
Accepted for publication August 14, 2008.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. Allan and D. McKillop The health implications of apologizing after an adverse event Int. J. Qual. Health Care, February 5, 2010; (2010) mzq001v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 L. Lopez, J. S. Weissman, E. C. Schneider, S. N. Weingart, A. P. Cohen, and A. M. Epstein Disclosure of Hospital Adverse Events and Its Association With Patients' Ratings of the Quality of Care Arch Intern Med, November 9, 2009; 169(20): 1888 - 1894. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. H. Gallagher A 62-Year-Old Woman With Skin Cancer Who Experienced Wrong-Site Surgery: Review of Medical Error JAMA, August 12, 2009; 302(6): 669 - 677. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|