Analysis of barriers and legal-ethical opportunities for disclosure and apology for medical errors in Spain

© 2015 SESPAS. 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.