Malpractice reform—opportunities for leadership by health care institutions and liability insurers.

Michelle M Mello; Thomas H Gallagher

Commentary

Malpractice reform—opportunities for leadership by health care institutions and liability insurers.

April 14, 2010

Mello MM, Gallagher TH. N Engl J Med. 2010;362(15):1353-6.

View more articles from the same authors.

This commentary discusses emerging, institution-led approaches to disclosure and resolution of medical injuries such as the early-settlement model and health courts.

PubMed citation

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Disclosure-and-resolution programs that include generous compensation offers may prompt a complex patient response.

December 19, 2012

Challenges of implementing a communication-and-resolution program where multiple organizations must cooperate.

December 21, 2016

Disclosing harmful medical errors to patients: tackling three tough cases.

September 30, 2009

Can communication-and-resolution programs achieve their potential? Five key questions.

December 19, 2018

Collaboration with regulators to support quality and accountability following medical errors: the communication and resolution program certification pilot.

September 21, 2016

How policy makers can smooth the way for communication-and-resolution programs.

January 29, 2014

Communication-and-resolution programs: the challenges and lessons learned from six early adopters.

January 15, 2014

Improving reconciliation following medical injury: a qualitative study of responses to patient safety incidents in New Zealand.

October 4, 2017

The evolving story of overlapping surgery.

July 19, 2017

Managing the risks of concurrent surgeries.

March 30, 2016

The role of medical liability reform in federal health care reform.

July 1, 2009

Patient safety and medical malpractice: a case study.

March 6, 2005

A 62-year-old woman with skin cancer who experienced wrong-site surgery.

July 22, 2009

Patients' experiences with communication-and-resolution programs after medical injury.

October 18, 2017

The medical liability climate and prospects for reform.

November 19, 2014

'Poking the skunk': ethical and medico-legal concerns in research about patients' experiences of medical injury.

July 17, 2019

Administrative compensation for medical injuries: lessons from three foreign systems.

August 3, 2011

Medical malpractice liability in the age of electronic health records.

December 1, 2010

Advising patients about patient safety: current initiatives risk shifting responsibility.

September 7, 2005

Physicians with multiple patient complaints: ending our silence.

May 8, 2013

Disclosing harmful medical errors to patients: a time for professional action.

September 21, 2005

Talking with patients about other clinicians' errors.

November 6, 2013

Medical monitoring for pharmaceutical injuries: tort law for the public's health?

March 6, 2005

Fostering rational regulation of patient safety.

July 20, 2005

Disclosing medical errors to patients: a status report in 2007.

August 15, 2007

Saying "I'm sorry": error disclosure for ophthalmologists.

October 22, 2014

The disclosure of unanticipated outcomes of care and medical errors: what does this mean for anesthesiologists?

June 29, 2011

Disclosure of adverse events and errors in surgical care: challenges and strategies for improvement.

June 4, 2014

Disclosing harmful pathology errors to patients.

January 6, 2010

Case outcomes in a communication-and-resolution program in New York hospitals.

February 1, 2017

Legal and policy interventions to improve patient safety.

March 2, 2016

Implementing hospital-based communication-and-resolution programs: lessons learned in New York City.

February 5, 2014

National costs of the medical liability system.

September 15, 2010

Beyond negligence: avoidability and medical injury compensation.

October 31, 2007

"Health courts" and accountability for patient safety.

September 13, 2006

Disclosing harmful medical errors to patients.

July 11, 2007

Confronting medical errors in oncology and disclosing them to cancer patients.

May 2, 2007

Who pays for medical errors? An analysis of adverse event costs, the medical liability system, and incentives for patient safety improvement.

February 6, 2008

The aging physician and the medical profession: a review.

August 9, 2017

Prevalence and characteristics of physicians prone to malpractice claims.

February 3, 2016

Disclosure of medical injury to patients: an improbable risk management strategy.

January 24, 2007

What do patients and relatives know about problems and failures in care?

January 18, 2012

What prevents incident disclosure, and what can be done to promote it?

August 31, 2011

How surgeons disclose medical errors to patients: a study using standardized patients.

December 7, 2005

Relationship between quality of care and negligence litigation in nursing homes.

April 13, 2011

Communicating with patients about diagnostic errors in breast cancer care: providers' attitudes, experiences, and advice

January 22, 2020

Disclosure of harmful medical errors in out-of-hospital care.

August 29, 2012

Speak up! Addressing the paradox plaguing patient-centered care.

February 17, 2016

Disclosing errors to patients: perspectives of registered nurses.

January 14, 2009

The disclosure dilemma—large-scale adverse events.

September 8, 2010

Changes in practice among physicians with malpractice claims.

April 3, 2019

Four states with robust prescription drug monitoring programs reduced opioid dosages.

June 27, 2018

Error disclosure: a new domain for safety culture assessment.

May 23, 2012

Disclosure coaching: an ask-tell-ask model to support clinicians in disclosure conversations.

July 25, 2018

Patients' and physicians' attitudes regarding the disclosure of medical errors.

March 6, 2005

Physician assistants and the disclosure of medical error.

June 18, 2014

Primary care physicians' willingness to disclose oncology errors involving multiple providers to patients.

November 25, 2015

Patient safety and the ageing physician: a qualitative study of key stakeholder attitudes and experiences.

October 10, 2018

Implementing an error disclosure coaching model: a multicenter case study.

February 22, 2017

Stepping out further from the shadows: disclosure of harmful radiologic errors to patients.

February 15, 2012

Hospitalized patients' attitudes about and participation in error prevention.

May 17, 2006

Accountability for medical error: moving beyond blame to advocacy.

August 17, 2011

Disclosure, apology, and offer programs: stakeholders' views of barriers to and strategies for broad implementation.

January 9, 2013

Defensive medicine among high-risk specialist physicians in a volatile malpractice environment.

June 8, 2005

Relationship between state malpractice environment and quality of health care in the United States.

April 12, 2017

Transparency when things go wrong: physician attitudes about reporting medical errors to patients, peers, and institutions.

March 18, 2015

We want to know: eliciting hospitalized patients' perspectives on breakdowns in care.

August 23, 2017

Delivering the truth: challenges and opportunities for error disclosure in obstetrics.

February 26, 2014

We want to know: patient comfort speaking up about breakdowns in care and patient experience.

October 17, 2018

Pathologists' perspectives on disclosing harmful pathology error.

May 3, 2017

Communicating pathology and laboratory errors: anatomic pathologists' and laboratory medical directors' attitudes and experiences.

May 18, 2011

Improving communication and resolution following adverse events using a patient-created simulation exercise.

January 25, 2017

Structuring patient and family involvement in medical error event disclosure and analysis.

January 22, 2014

Claims, errors, and compensation payments in medical malpractice litigation.

May 17, 2006

Outcomes in two Massachusetts hospital systems give reason for optimism about communication-and-resolution programs.

October 11, 2017

The emotional impact of medical errors on practicing physicians in the United States and Canada.

August 1, 2007

Lost opportunities: how physicians communicate about medical errors.

January 23, 2008

Patients' concerns about medical errors during hospitalization.

January 3, 2007

Patients as partners in learning from unexpected events.

November 9, 2016

US and Canadian physicians' attitudes and experiences regarding disclosing errors to patients.

August 16, 2006

Association of overlapping surgery with perioperative outcomes.

March 6, 2019

Communication training, adverse events, and quality measures: 2 retrospective database analyses in Washington State hospitals.

August 9, 2017

The experiences of risk managers in providing emotional support for health care workers after adverse events.

May 11, 2016

Risk managers' descriptions of programs to support second victims after adverse events.

May 13, 2015

Providers' perceptions of communication breakdowns in cancer care.

March 26, 2014

Not overstepping professional boundaries: the challenging role of nurses in simulated error disclosures.

September 21, 2011

Medical error disclosure among pediatricians: choosing carefully what we might say to parents.

October 15, 2008

Patient concerns about medical errors in emergency departments.

March 6, 2005

Apology laws and malpractice liability: what have we learned?

July 8, 2020

Choosing your words carefully: how physicians would disclose harmful medical errors to patients.

August 16, 2006

More than words: patients' views on apology and disclosure when things go wrong in cancer care.

August 24, 2011

Toward patient-centered cancer care: patient perceptions of problematic events, impact, and response.

May 2, 2012

How trainees would disclose medical errors: educational implications for training programmes.

April 13, 2011

The attitudes and experiences of trainees regarding disclosing medical errors to patients.

March 19, 2008

Effects of a communication-and-resolution program on hospitals' malpractice claims and costs.

December 19, 2018

Disclosing adverse events to patients: international norms and trends.

April 30, 2014

Risk managers, physicians, and disclosure of harmful medical errors.

February 24, 2010

Malpractice liability and health care quality: a review

February 19, 2020

Improving healthcare systems' disclosures of large-scale adverse events: a Department of Veterans Affairs leadership, policymaker, research and stakeholder partnership.

November 19, 2014

Reporting and disclosing medical errors: pediatricians' attitudes and behaviors.

February 7, 2007

Related Resources

Medication mix-up: what happened at Vanderbilt and how it impacts health care providers.

February 15, 2023

Does malpractice liability promote patient safety? A methodological excursion.

December 7, 2022

Digital health technology-specific risks for medical malpractice liability.

December 7, 2022

Made whole: the efficacy of legal redress for black women who have suffered injuries from medical bias.

November 30, 2022

Opportunities to mine EHRs for malpractice risk management and patient safety.

September 7, 2022

RaDonda Vaught, medication safety, and the profession of pharmacy: steps to improve safety and ensure justice.

August 17, 2022

Criminal liability for nursing and medical harm.

August 3, 2022

Does malpractice liability make healthcare safer? Aligning law and policy with evidence.

June 8, 2022

Patient safety assurance in the age of defensive medicine: a review.

March 2, 2022

The role of apology laws in medical malpractice.

July 7, 2021

Another medical malpractice crisis?: Try something different.

October 14, 2020

The paradoxes of defensive medicine.

August 26, 2020

To err Is human, unless you are a healthcare provider.

August 3, 2020

Apology laws and malpractice liability: what have we learned?

July 8, 2020

Evidence that nurses need to participate in diagnosis: lessons from malpractice claims.

April 29, 2020

What every health lawyer should know about the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005.

April 1, 2020

Before mea culpa, Children’s was confident its air systems weren’t source of infection

December 11, 2019

Patient Safety Ethics: How Vigilance, Mindfulness, Compliance, and Humility can Make Healthcare Safer.

July 24, 2019

Lessons learned from a death outside a hospital's doorstep.

June 26, 2019

Death by 1,000 clicks: where electronic health records went wrong.

March 27, 2019

Effects of a communication-and-resolution program on hospitals' malpractice claims and costs.

December 19, 2018

Physician engagement in malpractice risk reduction: a UPHS case study.

August 29, 2018

A piece of my mind. Trials and tribulations.

August 23, 2017

Changing the medical malpractice system to align with what we know about patient safety and quality improvement.

July 12, 2017

Deploying and measuring a risk and patient safety program.

February 1, 2017

Addressing ambulatory safety and malpractice: the Massachusetts PROMISES project.

December 14, 2016

Collaboration with regulators to support quality and accountability following medical errors: the communication and resolution program certification pilot.

September 21, 2016

Malpractice Risks in Communication Failures: 2015 Annual Benchmarking Report.

February 10, 2016

Electronic health record–related events in medical malpractice claims.

January 6, 2016

Data as a catalyst for change: stories from the frontlines.

February 11, 2015

See More About The Topic

Health Care Providers

Health Care Executives and Administrators

Malpractice Litigation

Malpractice reform—opportunities for leadership by health care institutions and liability insurers.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Malpractice reform—opportunities for leadership by health care institutions and liability insurers.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

PSNet Log in

Submit Your Case

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Case

Continue as a Guest

Already have a PSNet

Account?

New Users

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site