An innovative change has emerged from within our healthcare system: rather than the traditional deny or defend response to medical errors, an increasing number of hospitals are admitting them upfront. These disclosure-type programs have gone by a variety of names but now are commonly known as Communication and Resolution Programs, or CRPs.
The idea is that when a patient is harmed by their medical care, CRPs will provide a patient-centered response. At the core of the process is open, empathetic communication and timely resolution coupled with accountability and learning to prevent such events from recurring in the future.
I want to warn patients, however, that while these programs are widely publicized as an approach that serves to protect the patient, there are several underlying flaws, or gaps, in the program’s design that enable hospitals to protect their profits instead.
My larger aim is to use your stories, along with mine, to put a public spotlight on the gaps, and pressure hospitals to fix them.