Objetivo Identificar las oportunidades y las barreras legales-éticas sobre la comunicación y disculpa del error médico en España.
Método Estudio transversal a 46 expertos/as en derecho sanitario-bioética.
Resultados 39 (84,7%) respondieron que siempre deberían comunicarse los eventos y 38 (82,6%) se mostraron a favor de una disculpa. Treinta expertos/as (65,2%) declararon que si se realizaba una comunicación de errores, esta no devengaría responsabilidad profesional. Se identificó como oportunidad la mejora de la confianza médico/a-paciente, y como barrera principal, el miedo a las consecuencias de la comunicación.
Discusión existe un consenso sobre la falta de responsabilidad derivada de una comunicación-disculpa y la necesidad de iniciar un programa de comunicación a través del soporte a los/las médicos/as.
Objective To identify opportunities for disclosing information on medical errors in Spain and issuing an apology, as well as legal-ethical barriers.
Method A cross-sectional study was conducted through a questionnaire sent to health law and bioethics experts (n=46).
Results A total of 39 experts (84.7%) responded that health providers should always disclose adverse events and 38 experts (82.6%) were in favour of issuing an apology. Thirty experts (65.2%) reported that disclosure of errors would not lead to professional liability. The main opportunity for increasing disclosure was by enhancing trust in the physician-patient relationship and the main barrier was fear of the outcomes of disclosing medical errors.
Conclusions There is a broad agreement on the lack of liability following disclosure/apology on adverse events and the need to develop a strategy for disclosure among support for physicians.