Quality in Truth

In a case study of the Paradise Hill Medical Center, where 22 oncology patients received excess radiation treatment, the board, CEO, physicians, and management had to discuss whether to inform those patients of the error or not. Without even going into detail about the discussion, my only thought while reading this chapter was of course you have to tell them, because it’s the right thing to do!

The physicians’ first argument was that these cancer patients did not want or need any more bad news. They also said “Informing the patients of this error will only confuse them and destroy their faith and trust in their physicians and in the hospital. Yet they also agreed that they did not know what kind of effects would come from the excessive radiation. In my mind, how does anyone have the right to assume they know how a patient will react or what they will think from the news they are given, especially when the hospital does not even know whether negative results will occur from the excessive radiation or not? Every patient should be given the right whether to trust their physician and hospital or not and should be fully informed while making that decision. No patient should be deceived into trusting anyone, especially someone in charge of their health. Maybe this specific hospital has had a string of errors or has been found negligent in similar instances. These patients should be able to decide whether to continue with them or not based on all of the information.

In another argument, by the chairman of radiology, was that informing the patients would just be asking for malpractice litigation. But to counter this, in a recent article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, they cite a study who found that of 127 families who sued their healthcare providers after perinatal injuries, 42% were motivated by suspension of a cover-up or revenge. With the amount of healthcare member of the hospital that may come into contact with any of the patients who received the excessive radiation, deciding to keep this information a secret from them may become more likely to receive malpractice litigation then an honest truthful mistake that has been communicated to the patient.

In conclusion, I think the act of keeping the error information from the patients who received the error is a hospital that is only trying to look out for itself, which is extremely unethical in a field built so much on trust between physicians and patients. Not only do I think hiding the truth is unethical but I don’t think it will benefit anyone in the long run.