One might argue that it is naive to expect national officeholders to openly admit mistakes and apologize for their actions. Certainly, it is difficult to imagine Trump doing anything of the kind. Indeed, our news media and (especially) our electorate will unmercifully pummel the courageous leader who steps out on this limb to seek atonement. Or will they?
My answer is that it once seemed just as unlikely that the culture of my profession would ever permit this long overdue advancement. Hospitals obsessed about their public persona. Physicians fretted about their career standing. Attorneys agitated about their legal risk. Professional reputations and academic stature always seemed to demand an image of perfection.
Yet, step by step, our modern health care system has inched toward an ethos of transparency, even if that means ceding cherished traditions such as the aura of invincibility, the infallibility of authority, and the veil of secrecy. In the final analysis, transparency requires honesty. Honesty compels disclosure. Disclosure means always having to say you are sorry.
Remarkably, some hospitals such as ours have instituted policies of immediate disclosure and sincere apology to their patients whenever serious errors are committed, even if those patients otherwise have no inkling that a mistake has occurred, and despite the obvious risk of a lawsuit. It is an ethical imperative. Likewise, we need courageous political leaders to step up in the same way to show the interests of their constituents come before their own.
From The Ailing Nation, Chapter One: Atonement
One of the most difficult challenges in life is to admit you have made a mistake. Imagine how difficult that must for a physician who has caused irreparable harm to a patient! Yet, sooner or later, that will happen to every physician. So how do we cope with the grave burden of our medical errors? We face them. We confront our mistakes, review them, share them, and talk about them. Together. In large groups. One of the best places to do this is the Morbidity and Mortality conference, a staple of every hospital department across our nation. At the M&M conference, physicians share their mistakes openly with each other and discuss ways to prevent their recurrence. Public presentation of one’s mistakes becomes a way to give to others, an act of atonement. Can you imagine what our political landscape would look like if politicians could do the same? That would certainly bring some humility to national governance and improve the crafting of decisions that affect millions of Americans.