The Ethics of Disclosing Another Physician's Medical Error

The disclosure of medical errors has been shown to improve quality of care and decrease litigation and cost. However, much less attention has been given to how to manage situations in which a patient has been treated less than optimally at another institution or by another physician. The same ethical principles that support disclosing one's own errors apply to disclosure of other people's errors. Disclosing errors and encouraging quality improvement at other institutions or by other providers must be performed in a sensitive and judicious manner.