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Why Sorry Works! works Overview of Sorry Works Program for the Medical Malpractice Crisis Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 What is Sorry Works? Sorry Works! is an extreme honesty program for doctors, hospitals, and health care providers. The program is based on the successful 17 year experience of the Lexington, Kentucky VA hospital which reduced lawsuits, settlement costs, and defense costs. Sorry Works says when medical mistakes or unanticipated outcomes occur, doctors and hospitals should thoroughly review the facts of the case and quickly notify the patient and/or families with the findings. If an error or mistake is found, the hospital should apologize, offer answers, and provide a fair settlement up front. Providing a fair settlement upfront is as essential as the apology. The hospital should ask the family to retain legal counsel to ensure their rights are protected and preserved throughout the process. Finally, patients and families should be allowed to participate (as much as possible) in the effort to make sure the medical error does not happen again. Sorry Works - standing logic on its head? No! It works! Logic says that Sorry Works should invite lawsuits, right? After all, when things go wrong, people are told to keep quiet, get a lawyer, don't have meetings which could produce notes and witnesses, and, if necessary, lie and destroy documents. This climate of cover up and conceal which is intended to reduce or eliminate lawsuits actually produce lawsuits. This current climate makes filing a lawsuit the only option for injured people, as opposed to a lawsuit being the last recourse (as it should be). Furthermore, this cover up climate leads to large verdicts because juries become enraged by cover ups and seek to punish the doctors and hospitals. Sorry Works takes us back to what we were taught in Kindergarten. If you break someone's toy, apologize quickly and repair the damage. It seems to stand logic on head, especially when large sums of money and professional careers hang in the balance; however, “sorry" does work. The VA hospital in Lexington, KY has practiced the Sorry Works approach for 17 years and has reduced lawsuits, settlement costs, and defense costs. Only three cases have gone to trial over the 17 year experience, and the average settlement is $16,000 versus the national VA average of $98,000. Furthermore, cases are closed in 2 to 4 months instead of the usual two to four year average, which saves on defense costs. The Joint Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) has used the Lexington experience to develop a protocol by which all hospitals - private and public - should follow to be accredited. Private hospitals in Boston and Minneapolis have adopted the extreme honesty approach and others will hopefully follow soon. How does Sorry Works! reduce lawsuits? What generates a medical malpractice lawsuit? Answer: anger. Patients and families become angry when they do not get answers or accountability. Patients don't expect perfection from doctors or the medical system, but they do demand honesty, especially when things go wrong, and a good faith effort to make things right. But if the door is slammed in their face, patients and families have no choice but to call a lawyer and initiate a lawsuit. Sorry Works removes the anger from the process, and in most cases the need to file a lawsuit. By offering an apology and providing a fair settlement upfront, patients and families are treated in a compassionate manner. Instead of being treated like the enemy, patients are elevated to a special status where the hospital tries to make amends for the error or bad outcome. When patients and families are treated with good will, the feelings are usually reciprocated. Sorry Works! also reduces "frivolous" filings It's a fact: Many lawsuits against doctors are dropped or dismissed. Critics of the court system claim dismissed lawsuits are "frivolous" and these frivolous filings drive up insurance premiums. These "frivolous" filings should be eliminated, and Sorry Works! provides the solution. When a medical error occurs today the only people who talk are the patients and families. The hospitals and doctors circle the wagon and clam up. The lawyer has no choice but to name everyone in the lawsuit and then dismiss people through the discovery process. With Sorry Works the hospital and doctors are transparent. Honesty rules the day, and there is no question about who is involved with the case. Finally, with Sorry Works, hospitals gain a reputation of honesty with local trial lawyers. If a "Sorry Works" hospital decides they will fight a case (i.e, not apologize and settle), then that is a strong signal to the trial bar that the case is probably without merit and not worth pursuing. Sorry Works! wins in court too! There are two components to medical malpractice lawsuits: the merits of the case (did an error occur?) and the financial considerations (if an error occurred, how much compensation is due to the injured party?). When errors are discovered and revealed with Sorry Works, these errors are disclosed immediately with an apology along with all related documents and files. With the merits of the case decided, Sorry Works! says the hospital should make a good-faith effort to provide a fair settlement quickly to the injured party. The hospital and the injured party's attorney discuss and hopefully agree on a fair settlement. But what happens if a settlement is not reached? Then a lawsuit will follow, but the case will only focus on the financial considerations (the merit of the case has already been decided). On one side you will have the doctor who has admitted fault and tried to do the right thing by offering a fair settlement, and on the other side you will have the plaintiff who will look greedy for not taking the settlement offer. The odds are in favor of the doctor in this scenario, and this why only three lawsuits went to trial against the Lexington VA hospital in their 17 year experience. Sorry Works! improves healthcare and reduces repeat medical errors The current "cover up" climate dooms doctors to repeat the same medical mistakes again. Why? Because doctors are encouraged NOT to talk and have meetings which could produce notes and witnesses. Defense lawyers tell everyone to be quiet. Therefore, medical mistakes don't receive the thorough review needed to prevent them from happening again. Under Sorry Works, doctors talk freely and discuss what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Furthermore, patients can become involved and contribute to the learning process. Sorry Works encourages discussion and review, which leads to improvements in the healthcare system. Sorry Works! also preserves the doctor-patient relationship The quality of the doctor-patient relationship is essential to continuous quality health care. Unfortunately, under the current system, doctors and patients become enemies when mistakes happen. They only speak through their lawyers. The relationship is severed, often permanently. With Sorry Works, doctors and patients continue to talk and work together to learn from the medical error and improve healthcare. At the VA in Lexington, several patients and families continued to use the same doctor even after an error because they appreciated the honesty and forthright approach. But would trial lawyers live with Sorry Works? Yes! With the current "cover up" climate, trial lawyers must invest $20,000 to $50,000 dollars per case and carry the expenses two to four years before the case is typically settled or disposed. Furthermore, only one in three medical malpractice cases has a successful outcome for the plaintiffs. Under Sorry Works, the plaintiffs' attorney represent the patient or family, negotiate a fair settlement, and dispose of the case in two to four months with very little upfront expenses. Can Sorry Works! work in the private sector? Yes. Sorry can work in the private sector, but it is more challenging since multiple, independent parties (insurers, lawyers, etc) have to brought to the table and agree upon the approach. However, once all parties agree to Sorry Works, the parameters should be the same. Patients in the VA system wish to be treated the same way as patients in private hospitals - with honesty. What is the Sorry Works! pilot program? The Sorry Works pilot program will "hold harmless" six Illinois hospitals that try Sorry Works for a two-trial period. This is basically a "no risk" try for the hospitals. Below is the outline and specifics of how the program will operate: Establish a working committee to develop, oversee, and implement the Sorry Works! pilot program. Members of the committee shall include, but are not limited to, appointees from the following organizations/groups: 1.) Illinois Department of Insurance 2.) Illinois Department of Professional Regulation 3.) Illinois State Medical Society 4.) ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company 5.) Illinois Trial Lawyers Association 6.) Illinois Hospital Association 7.) Two physicians designated by the State Medical Society 8.) Two trial lawyers designed by the IL Trial Lawyers Assoc. 9.) Two hospital administrators designed by the Illinois Hospital Association 10.) Two actuarial experts agreed upon by ISMIE, Illinois State Medical Society, and Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Staff from the Governor's office and General Assembly will be allowed to attend, monitor, and participate in committee meetings. The committee will be responsible for establishing the exact criteria of the pilot program, including eligibility for hospitals, doctors, and insurers to participate in the program, establish criteria for the method by which hospitals, doctors and insurers will be held harmless under the program, establish a sub-committee to review cases from hospitals and determine if hospitals, doctors, and insurers are due compensation under program. The committee will dialogue with hospitals, doctors, and insurers who are interested in participating in the program and ultimately decide which applicants will be accepted for the program. The committee will report to the Governor and the General Assembly every six months At the end of the two-year trial period, the committee will publish data from the program. Normal and reasonable costs of committee members in conducting their assigned duties will be reimbursed Overview of program: The program would be open to six hospitals for two years. Hospitals, doctors and insurers participating in the program would be "held harmless" by the State of Illinois for excessive liability incurred during the Sorry Works! two year trial period. It is the job of the Sorry Works committee to develop standards and protocol to compare settlements and defense costs for cases handled with traditional means versus cases handled under the Sorry Works! protocol. If in the opinion of the committee, a case results in excessive settlement costs because of the Sorry Works protocol, then the State would pay for the difference in settlement cost between what is generally considered a fair settlement versus what was paid under Sorry Works. Final point: If in the opinion of the committee, the program in resulting in excessive settlement costs, the program can be terminated by a 2/3 vote of the committee members and agreement by the Governor. SOURCE: Victims and Families http://www.victimsandfamilies.com/Sorry.phtml * * *Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> Please place this address in your address book Please purge all others Web site: Parkinsons Resources on the WWWeb http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn