This positively affects your patients outcome.
A soon “I’m sorry”, told by the attending physician to his patient when he was mistaken in treatment or advice, could represent less sues, better patient-doctor relationship, help to avoid future mistakes and improves trust of patients in their doctors.
In the US, 98,000 people dies every year by medical mistakes. The doctor who recognizes his own mistake has fewer problems of legal issues.
I didn’t know that 17 american states had the “I’m sorry” law. This sounds very nice to me.
This is why I firmly believe that medical schools have to include more subjects about humanism.
In a study of Richard Gracely, from Michigan University, 60 postop patients went randomized assigned to receive pain killers or placebo pills. He thought that 50 percent of the patients took pain killers and the rest took placebo pills, but the truth was that all of them had placebo pills. Surprisingly, the first 30 patients had fewer paint than the rest and that was just because the possitive attitude that doctor transmitted to his patients when he prescribed them.