Healing Words: The Power of Apology in Medicine

Understood the book, but how are you going to retrain providers until they are sued! Why aren't they trained in medical school from the beginning the golden rule (Treat others as you want to be treated)? Every organization needs to make this mandatory reading before they are allowed to see patients within their facility! Who knows, if they learned that patients are real people, their patient capacity might fill real fast!

Written by a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Healing Words: The Power of Apology in Medicine is a call to doctors and medical professionals everywhere to question the widespread belief that an apology is an admission of guilt and an open door to a costly lawsuit. Woods reveals how the value of a proper apology and cultivated communication skills can actually prevent lawsuits, and promote emotional healing in doctors, patients, and patient's families even in the wake of terrible medical tragedies. Healing Words discusses the components of a proper apology, how doctors can improve their ability to communicate with patients, matters of medical ethics, and much more. Strongly recommended for physicians, Healing Words is a much-needed counterbalance to the defensive hostility widely promulgated by today's modern sue-happy society.

Given all that has been recently reported on physicians saying "I'm sorry," this short, straightforward book couldn't have come at a better time. Dr. Michael Woods has written a practical, motivational book directed at physicians on the why's, how's, and what's of apologizing to patients. Drawing from personal experience, stories from other doctors, examples from other industries, and research data, Dr. Woods does not hold back in making an impassioned plea for physicians to master this tricky part of the patient-doctor relationship. At ~82 pages, you can probably read this book in one or two sittings (In fact, I read most of it in the waiting room as I waited to see my doctor. Luckily he didn't have to apologize for anything that day). Dr. Woods moves quickly from topic to topic, breaking down just about every aspect of "I'm sorry" - why it's so difficult for physicians in particular to apologize, what an meaningful apologize entails, what the patient is thinking/feeling in apology-worthy situations, how to build more authentic relationships with patients, and even what exact words you could say in difficult situations. Overall, doctors should apologize appropriately (and probably more often)- it's the right thing to do, it's the compassionate thing to do, and if that's not enough, it might even prevent some lawsuits. I'm just sorry that I didn't read this book sooner.