Title: Disclosing harmful patient safety incidents with proactive compensation offer: how do patients respond in Japan?
Authors: Xiuzhu Gu; Mingming Deng
Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics, School of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan ' School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
Abstract: Disclosure of harmful incidents is important as patients have the right to know the truth. This study aims to explore the impacts of partial and full disclosure, alongside proactive compensation offers on Japanese patients' reactions. A questionnaire survey was conducted using two fictitious cases with four types of disclosure scenarios. Participants were asked inquired about the actions they would be inclined to take if they were the ones affected. A total of 543 responses to the moderate and 587 responses to the severe harm case were collected. The findings in this study suggest that similar reactions were observed from Japanese patients after receiving full or partial disclosure. In addition, proactive compensation offers had a mitigation effect on patient complaints complains and lawsuits. Therefore, for Japanese healthcare providers, such evidence could relieve their fear of patients' reactions after full disclosure; and for healthcare organisations, it is recommended that proactive compensation offers be included alongside disclosure programs.
Keywords: patient safety incident; patient harm; partial disclosure; full disclosure; compensation; patient reaction.
International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2024 Vol.18 No.4, pp.321 - 336
Received: 09 Nov 2023
Accepted: 12 Dec 2023
Published online: 07 Oct 2024 *