Medical error disclosure and patient safety: legal aspects

Reducing the number of preventable adverse events has become a public health issue. The paper discusses in which ways the law can contribute to that goal, especially by encouraging a culture of safety among healthcare professionals. It assesses the need or the usefulness to pass so-called disclosure laws and apology laws, to adopt mandatory but strictly confidential Critical Incidents Reporting Systems in hospitals, to change the fault-based system of medical liability or to amend the rules on criminal liability. The paper eventually calls for adding the law to the present agenda of patient safety. Significance for public healthThe extent of preventable adverse events and the correlative need to improve patient safety are recognized today as a public health issue. In order to lower the toll associated with preventable adverse events, the former culture of professionalism (based on the premise that a good physician doesn't make mistakes) must be replaced by a culture of safety, which requires a multi-pronged approach that includes all the main stakeholders within the healthcare system. A number of legal reforms could help in prompting such a change. This contribution stresses the need to include legal aspects when trying to find appropriate responses to public health issues.