What do you do when things don’t go as planned?

Most of the time procedures in the hospital go exactly as planned. But what do you do when things don’t go as planned, what or how do you tell the patient and their family? There is certainly an ethical, professional and legal obligation to disclose what has taken place; but what is the best way to do that?

Dr. K. Reducka is the Physician Risk Manager at the Canadian Medical Protective Association, she recently came to Chatham-Kent Health Alliance to educate Physicians and the Interprofessional Team on the process of disclosing information to patients and families.

During the session, participants:
1) Learned the threshold for disclosure
2) Worked through disclosure scenarios
3) Learned how to develop a communication process to meet the patient’s clinical, information and emotional needs.

Unfortunately, we know that errors happen. So while we aim to never need the education received, we want to be prepared for when we do and to disclose information regarding a patient’s care in the best possible way. With Dr. Reducka’s support, we are better to do just that.

In the photo below, Dr. K. Reducka is seen during the education session provided to the interdisciplinary team.