Supporting second victims of patient safety events: shouldn't these communications be covered by legal privilege?

Mélanie E de Wit; Clifford M Marks; Jeffrey P Natterman; Albert W Wu

Commentary

Supporting second victims of patient safety events: shouldn't these communications be covered by legal privilege?

February 12, 2014

de Wit ME, Marks CM, Natterman JP, et al. J Law Med Ethics. 2013;41(4):852-8, Table of Contents.

View more articles from the same authors.

Reviewing physician–patient privilege laws in five states, this commentary illustrates substantial variation in legal protections provided for second victim programs and recommends clear legislation for clinicians who seek support.

PubMed citation

Available at

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Close calls in patient safety: should we be paying closer attention?

May 15, 2013

"That was a close call": endorsing a broad definition of near misses in health care.

October 2, 2013

ReCASTing the RCA: an improved model for performing root cause analyses.

May 26, 2010

Effectiveness and efficiency of root cause analysis in medicine.

February 27, 2008

Critical incident stress debriefing after adverse patient safety events.

August 9, 2017

Medical error: the second victim.

November 21, 2012

Safety culture in Indian hospitals: a cultural adaptation of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire.

May 21, 2014

Does one size fit all? Assessing the need for organizational second victim support programs.

April 7, 2021

What can patient safety teach us about clinician burnout?

January 8, 2020

Medical error, incident investigation and the second victim: doing better but feeling worse?

April 4, 2012

Time for transparent standards in quality reporting by health care organizations.

August 16, 2017

Emotional influences in patient safety.

October 20, 2010

Clinician mindfulness and patient safety.

December 15, 2010

COVID-19: peer support and crisis communication strategies to promote institutional resilience.

April 22, 2020

Putting the patient in patient safety investigations: barriers and strategies for involvement.

June 3, 2020

Do hospitals support second victims? Collective insights from patient safety leaders in Maryland.

July 19, 2017

On higher ground: ethical reasoning and its relationship with error disclosure.

April 24, 2013

A framework for encouraging patient engagement in medical decision making.

August 29, 2012

How to discuss errors and adverse events with cancer patients.

June 16, 2010

Ethical and practical aspects of disclosing adverse events in the emergency department.

October 4, 2006

RISE: exploring volunteer retention and sustainability of a second victim support program.

February 3, 2021

Disclosing medical errors to patients: it's not what you say, it's what they hear.

July 22, 2009

Review of alternatives to root cause analysis: developing a robust system for incident report analysis.

September 18, 2019

Disclosure of patient safety incidents: a comprehensive review.

September 1, 2010

Patient-assisted incident reporting: including the patient in patient safety.

June 1, 2011

Conflict of interest, Dr Charles Denham and the Journal of Patient Safety.

December 3, 2014

How to develop a second victim support program: a toolkit for health care organizations.

May 2, 2012

Patient safety reporting: a qualitative study of thoughts and perceptions of experts 15 years after 'To Err is Human.'

August 12, 2015

Health care workers as second victims of medical errors.

May 11, 2011

Patient and family empowerment as agents of ambulatory care safety and quality.

September 7, 2016

Disclosure of "nonharmful" medical errors and other events: duty to disclose.

March 29, 2012

The role of South--North partnerships in promoting shared learning and knowledge transfer.

September 6, 2017

Residency schedule, burnout and patient care among first-year residents.

September 4, 2013

The aspects of healthcare quality that are important to health professionals and patients: a qualitative study.

December 15, 2021

Psychological and psychosomatic symptoms of second victims of adverse events: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

May 1, 2019

To tell the truth: ethical and practical issues in disclosing medical mistakes to patients.

March 6, 2005

Peer support for nurses as second victims: resilience, burnout, and job satisfaction.

November 20, 2019

Implementing the RISE second victim support programme at the Johns Hopkins Hospital: a case study.

October 26, 2016

Case: a second victim support program in pediatrics: successes and challenges to implementation.

March 21, 2018

The impact of adverse events on clinicians: what's in a name?

November 22, 2017

Promoting the psychological well-being of healthcare providers facing the burden of adverse events: a systematic review of second victim support resources.

June 23, 2021

Planning and implementing a systems-based patient safety curriculum in medical education.

August 13, 2008

Non-dispensing pharmacists' actions and solutions of drug therapy problems among elderly polypharmacy patients in primary care.

November 6, 2019

Inpatient safety outcomes following the 2011 residency work-hour reform.

April 2, 2014

Informing the design of a new pragmatic registry to stimulate near miss reporting in ambulatory care.

March 15, 2017

Cost–benefit analysis of a support program for nursing staff.

May 24, 2017

Do written disclosures of serious events increase risk of malpractice claims? One health care system's experience.

May 30, 2018

Massive open online course (MOOC) learning builds capacity and improves competence for patient safety among global learners: a prospective cohort study.

September 8, 2021

Using incident reporting to improve patient safety: a conceptual model.

March 28, 2007

Integrating the intensive care unit safety reporting system with existing incident reporting systems.

October 5, 2005

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

Health care professionals as second victims after adverse events: a systematic review.

October 24, 2012

Supporting involved health care professionals (second victims) following an adverse health event: a literature review.

August 15, 2012

Development and evaluation of a 3-day patient safety curriculum to advance knowledge, self-efficacy and system thinking among medical students.

April 18, 2012

An evidence and consensus-based definition of second victim: a strategic topic in healthcare quality, patient safety, person-centeredness and human resource management.

February 15, 2023

Intensive care unit safety incidents for medical versus surgical patients: a prospective multicenter study.

October 3, 2007

A system factors analysis of "line, tube, and drain" incidents in the intensive care unit.

August 24, 2005

Learning from lawsuits: using malpractice claims data to develop care transitions planning tools.

August 31, 2016

What have we learned about interventions to reduce medical errors?

February 10, 2010

Usability study of two common defibrillators reveals hazards.

January 2, 2008

Mitigating the July effect.

July 7, 2021

Toward learning from patient safety reporting systems.

January 10, 2007

COVID-19: the dark side and the sunny side for patient safety.

October 14, 2020

Supporting the emotional well-being of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 5, 2020

Disclosing adverse events to patients: international norms and trends.

April 30, 2014

Case studies of patient safety research classics to build research capacity in low- and middle-income countries.

December 11, 2013

How will we know patients are safer? An organization-wide approach to measuring and improving safety.

June 7, 2006

Reducing health care hazards: lessons from the Commercial Aviation Safety Team.

April 15, 2009

Medical error: the second victim.

March 9, 2011

Harnessing implementation science to improve care quality and patient safety: a systematic review of targeted literature.

May 21, 2014

Review of medication errors that are new or likely to occur more frequently with electronic medication management systems.

July 17, 2019

How nurses and physicians judge their own quality of care for deteriorating patients on medical wards: self-assessment of quality of care is suboptimal.

August 29, 2012

Learning from disasters to improve patient safety: applying the generic disaster pathway to health system errors.

February 9, 2011

Establishing a global learning community for incident-reporting systems.

November 10, 2010

'Between the flags': implementing a rapid response system at scale.

May 14, 2014

Cultural and associated enablers of, and barriers to, adverse incident reporting.

June 23, 2010

Inappropriateness of medication prescriptions to elderly patients in the primary care setting: a systematic review.

September 19, 2012

How house officers cope with their mistakes.

March 6, 2005

Do house officers learn from their mistakes?

March 6, 2005

Toward a new paradigm in hospital-based pediatric education: the development of an onsite simulator program.

November 23, 2005

Preventable adverse drug events: descriptive epidemiology.

November 13, 2019

Safety as a criterion for quality: The Critical Nursing Situation Index in paediatric critical care, an observational study.

November 4, 2009

Informal learning from error in hospitals: what do we learn, how do we learn and how can informal learning be enhanced? A narrative review.

October 16, 2013

Core competencies for patient safety research: a cornerstone for global capacity strengthening.

February 2, 2011

A comprehensive overview of medical error in hospitals using incident-reporting systems, patient complaints and chart review of inpatient deaths.

March 14, 2012

Medication reconciliation performed by pharmacy technicians at the time of preoperative screening.

July 29, 2009

When the misdiagnosis is child abuse.

September 2, 2020

Evidence review conducted for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery: focus on anesthesiology for colorectal surgery.

May 9, 2018

Introduction to the STS National Database Series: outcomes analysis, quality improvement, and patient safety.

November 18, 2015

Discrepancies in written versus calculated durations in opioid prescriptions: pre-post study.

April 22, 2020

Patient safety: through the eyes of your peers.

July 5, 2006

Beyond "see one, do one, teach one": toward a different training paradigm.

February 25, 2009

Recognition of adverse drug events in older hospitalized medical patients.

July 11, 2012

The impact of computerized provider order entry on medication errors in a multispecialty group practice.

February 3, 2010

Reliability evaluation of the adapted National Coordinating Council Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) index.

June 13, 2007

Development of a tool within the electronic medical record to facilitate medication reconciliation after hospital discharge.

May 4, 2011

Non-emergency patient transport: what are the quality and safety issues? A systematic review.

February 2, 2011

A randomized trial of a multifactorial strategy to prevent serious fall injuries.

July 29, 2020

How can we improve the recognition, reporting and resolution of medical device-related incidents in hospitals? A qualitative study of physicians and registered nurses.

July 8, 2015

Related Resources

Improving safety by evaluating the impact of the supply chain and drug shortages on health-systems.

March 29, 2023

An infrastructure to provide safer, higher quality, and more equitable telehealth.

March 1, 2023

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

February 15, 2023

Electronic health record legal settlements in the US since the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.

December 21, 2022

The second victim of unanticipated adverse events.

December 14, 2022

Digital health technology-specific risks for medical malpractice liability.

December 7, 2022

Does malpractice liability promote patient safety? A methodological excursion.

December 7, 2022

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

November 30, 2022

Patient safety and legal regulations: a total-scale analysis of the scientific literature.

October 19, 2022

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

September 7, 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

A new argument for no-fault compensation in health care: the introduction of artificial intelligence systems.

April 7, 2021

A systems approach to address the impact of second victim phenomenon.

December 9, 2020

An effective intervention: limiting opioid prescribing as a means of reducing opioid analgesic misuse, and overdose deaths.

September 23, 2020

The paradoxes of defensive medicine.

August 26, 2020

An examination of medical malpractice claims involving physician trainees.

August 19, 2020

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

August 3, 2020

As college students return, a crisis in campus care awaits.

July 29, 2020

Apology laws and malpractice liability: what have we learned?

July 8, 2020

The Power to Predict: Leveraging Medical Malpractice Data to Reduce Patient Harm and Financial Loss.

June 24, 2020

Managing teamwork in the face of pandemic: evidence-based tips.

June 24, 2020

Preventing a parallel pandemic - a national strategy to protect clinicians' well-being.

June 10, 2020

Two cultures in modern science and technology: for safety and validity does medicine have to update?

April 1, 2020

A 25-year-old teacher died after waiting hours at the ER. She's not the only one who saw delays.

March 11, 2020

Measuring quality.

January 8, 2020

"Sorry" is never enough: how state apology laws fail to reduce medical malpractice liability risk.

April 24, 2019

Abandon the term "second victim."

April 10, 2019

See More About The Topic

Health Care Providers

Supporting second victims of patient safety events: shouldn't these communications be covered by legal privilege?

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Supporting second victims of patient safety events: shouldn't these communications be covered by legal privilege?

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

PSNet Log in

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