Healthcare Risk Management Quotes Paul Werner on Best Practices for Investigating Adverse Events
Buttaci Leardi & Werner member Paul Werner was quoted throughout an article in Healthcare Risk Management titled “Adverse Event Investigations Require Focus on Just Culture, Improvement.” The article, published in the March 2025 issue, discusses best practices for investigating adverse events, including how to make the results most useful for patient safety improvements and for legal defense.
Werner tells Healthcare Risk Management that in any adverse event investigation, patient safety takes priority.
“Once the provider is certain that the patient’s safety has been addressed, the next step is to fully document everything that happened and everyone who was involved,” Werner says. “Adverse events are, unfortunately, part of the practice of medicine. They are not something to hide from, and in fact, more often than not, the attempt to cover something up leads to far more severe consequences than simply addressing the issue head on.”
Werner says that depending on the situation, other steps may be involved as well. For example, if the adverse event may have been caused by the administration of a medication, that medication must be documented, including lot numbers as appropriate, so that things can be traced, if necessary. Other necessary steps also may include preserving physical items associated with the adverse event.
Werner says the biggest mistake a provider can make is to try to hide the existence of an adverse event. But he says the legal community is split on whether and how to apologize to patients after an adverse event, with some adopting the philosophy that patients are less likely to pursue claims against a provider if the provider apologizes, and others taking the approach that apologizing is an unnecessary admission of wrongdoing.
“Personally, I have adopted the latter view. I would never advise a client to apologize to a patient for the adverse event, at least not directly. For example, I would not advise a client to say, ‘I’m sorry that the procedure we performed injured you,’” Werner says. “I would, however, suggest that a client say something to effect of ‘I’m sorry that you are having to deal with this.’ My personal opinion is that nothing a provider says after an adverse event is going to dissuade a patient from bringing a claim if that patient was otherwise intending to do so, and, in that vein, the only thing an apology can do is create a statement that the provider will have to defend against later.”
The full article can be read at Healthcare Risk Management.
- Posted on: Mar 28 2025