Full Table of Contents
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Abbreviated
Table of Contents

Home Page
Patient Safety
Silence vs
    Safety
Silenced
White wall
    of Silence
Silencing
Conflict Of
    Interest
Psychology of
    Providers
Subjectivity
Blacklisting  
Nurse survey
Loyalty
Mobbing and
    bullying
Trust Us
Defensive
    documenting
Report Rate
Risk
    managemnt
SOAP
Management
Hospitals
Crime in
    medicine
Sexual Abuse
Liability
    Limitations
Free Speech
    for Patients
Exploitation

OSMB Medical
    Boards
Mammography
solutions
Medical errors
Medical Complaints
One number
Links

 

Injured patients who want to help and be heard, click here.

 

Thomas Jefferson said that given the choice between government without newspapers and newspapers without government, he would choose newspapers.

In medicine we have government without newspapers. Patients cannot find out what they need to know to make informed choices. No one in medicine records or reports the information patients need to know the most. So patients will have to do it.

Silenced

Buying Silence

Healthcare either coerces or buys silence whenever things go wrong. That should be illegal, but until it is including in any settlement agreement a positive line declaring the victim's right to speak about issues that may or may not have been brought up in the course of the case, issues that may or may not include crime in medicine, patient safety, sex abuse, and such like, is one thing that can help reduce the extent to which victims are silenced.

Society needs Rememberers

The community needs victims of adverse events to avoid letting gag orders or non-disclosure clauses be included in papers that are signed. Gag orders are routine and expected. The patient's own attorney will be used to including them without argument and recommend signing them. But that demolishes the responsibility that patients have to each other. When you know there are snakes in the field, you have a responsibility to tell the other people who are walking through the grass. Even if you are not allowed to name specific snakes, the community must hear the victim's experience, including the lessons learned from trying to get justice and/or suing or being sued afterwards. Otherwise the community will not develop the vocabulary and understanding necessary to protect itself.

Witnesses and rememberers are fundamental
to a safe and just society

The statistics on the amount of crime in medicine already are available, but people don't think in statistics. They think in stories. The police are not aware of what they are doing wrong when they refer victims of crimes to state medical boards (hard to imagine graduates of police academies being no smarter than that, but it is a fact). State medical boards derail the rule of law in medicine but somehow think that's okay. Without the stories of the victims, they never will become know better, and future victims will not have the experience of others to draw on to help them deal with their tragedies either. It is necessary for patients with problems to be heard.

I have been told of one patient who refused to sign the gag order and still got the settlement. Speaking to him to see what can be learned from his experience is on my list of things to do (eventually).

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Home | Table of Contents | It's a Path
Silence versus Patient Safety
Loyalty versus Patient Safety
The White Wall of Silence versus Patient Safety
Blacklisting Patients
Freedom of Speech for Patients
Medical Complaints - How to

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It's a path

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Revised August 29, 2010