Good article with some very good points from Medical Economics...also there's another good related article, "Living with your Mistakes" well worth look at as well...BD
In December 2003, 13 months before she died of liver cancer, the journalist and essayist Marjorie Williams wrote a column for The Washington Post about why she felt uneasy about Howard Dean's presidential bid. Her chief complaint: "The man is a doctor. . . . Where else but in medicine do you find men and women who never admit a mistake? Who talk more than they listen and feel entitled to withhold crucial information?"
Williams' cynical take on the medical profession—the result of a long illness during which she saw dozens of physicians and medical students in several different settings—is unfortunately shared by many people. The problem is compounded by the fact that even physicians who are inclined to acknowledge mistakes and discuss adverse medical events with patients are discouraged from doing so, most often by malpractice insurers. But insurers, hospital administrators, educators, and other major players in the medical profession are starting to notice that the words "I'm sorry" can mollify angry patients—and might increase the likelihood that an injured patient will settle out of court, or not sue at all.
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