How to promote justice, greater safety and trust between hospitals and patients

Abstract

In a time when lack of trust has been cited as an increasing problem between patients and the organizations and physicians who care for them, what can hospitals and physicians do to deal with this problem that is not already being done?  We discuss herein an actual obstetrical based legal case intended to be an illustrative example of medical-legal issues that could apply to any specialty.  If hospitals and physicians will overtly promote safety by learning from errors and support justice for injured patients, the conveyance of these ethically motivated policies to the public can be a powerful message that hospitals and physicians are to be trusted.