Your mom was right: saying you’re sorry really is an important way of resolving a conflict.
Some malpractice-reform advocates say an apology can help doctors avoid getting sued, especially when combined with an upfront settlement offer.
The idea defies a long tradition in which doctors cultivated a Godlike image of infallibility and rarely owned up to their mistakes.
The hospitals in the University of Michigan Health System have been encouraging doctors since 2002 to apologize for mistakes. The system’s annual attorney fees have since dropped from $3 million to $1 million, and malpractice lawsuits and notices of intent to sue have fallen from 262 filed in 2001 to about 130 per year, said Rick Boothman, a former trial attorney who launched the practice there.
And other examples are given.
It would be nice if that example were spread outside of the medical field. Being apologized to validates your anger and outrage, it makes you feel accepted as a human being, and it reestablishes a connection that was damaged by ill treatment. It’s an extension of the “The Customer Is Always Right” theory (though a bit less extreme).
We could all use with a bit more apologizing, received and given. It would even be better if it were sincere, either as an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, or at least an acknowledgment of emotional hurt.
(Posted by CronDave)