TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethical Considerations on Disclosure When Medical Error Is Discovered during Medicolegal Death Investigation
AU - Wolf, Dwayne
AU - Drake, Stacy A.
AU - Snow, Francine K.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - In the course of fulfilling their statutory role, physicians performing medicolegal investigations may recognize clinical colleagues' medical errors. If the error is found to have led directly to the patient's death (missed diagnosis or incorrect diagnosis, for example), then the forensic pathologist has a professional responsibility to include the information in the autopsy report and make sure that the family is appropriately informed. When the error is significant but did not lead directly to the patient's demise, ethical questions may arise regarding the obligations of the medical examiner to disclose the error to the clinicians or to the family. This case depicts the discovery of medical error likely unrelated to the cause of death and describes one possible ethical approach to disclosure derived from an ethical reasoning model addressing ethical principles of respect for persons/autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.
AB - In the course of fulfilling their statutory role, physicians performing medicolegal investigations may recognize clinical colleagues' medical errors. If the error is found to have led directly to the patient's death (missed diagnosis or incorrect diagnosis, for example), then the forensic pathologist has a professional responsibility to include the information in the autopsy report and make sure that the family is appropriately informed. When the error is significant but did not lead directly to the patient's demise, ethical questions may arise regarding the obligations of the medical examiner to disclose the error to the clinicians or to the family. This case depicts the discovery of medical error likely unrelated to the cause of death and describes one possible ethical approach to disclosure derived from an ethical reasoning model addressing ethical principles of respect for persons/autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.
KW - ethics of disclosure
KW - medical error
KW - medicolegal death investigation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85036514535&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1097/PAF.0000000000000343
DO - 10.1097/PAF.0000000000000343
M3 - Article
C2 - 28863125
AN - SCOPUS:85036514535
SN - 0195-7910
VL - 38
SP - 294
EP - 297
JO - American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
JF - American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology
IS - 4
ER -