Responding Justly to Patients Harmed by Medical Care: Disclosure, Compensation, and Litigation

Award Year: 2007	Investigator: Thomas Gallagher, Michelle Mello	Budget: $334,869	Categories: Malpractice
Abstract: The Institute of Medicine's 2000 report, To Err Is Human, and the widespread media attention it received, dramatically increased awareness of the extent of medical mistakes in U.S. hospitals. Since then, a number of states and national quality organizations have adopted policies requiring or encouraging medical professionals to tell patients and families when unanticipated "adverse events" occur. Some organizations and insurers have gone even further by adopting programs through which disclosures of adverse events are accompanied by offers of compensation (known as disclosure and offer or D&O programs). Still, prompt disclosure of medical errors and fair compensation remain the exception rather than the rule. Thomas H. Gallagher, M.D. and Michelle M. Mello, J.D., Ph.D., M.Phil., seek to more fully understand the effects of disclosure initiatives and innovative D&O programs on malpractice costs and patients' access to compensation. Their project, Responding Justly to Patients Harmed by Medical Care: Disclosure, Compensation, and Litigation, explores how policy levers can be used to make disclosing errors more routine and evaluates the design and effectiveness of D&O programs. Their work should help policymakers better understand the potential of these initiatives and how they might best be integrated into broader medical liability reforms.