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Open Disclosure Resources

Tom Gallagher presentations – June 2009

Dr Tom Gallagher is practising physician and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and is renowned for his work in the field of open disclosure.

In June 2009, he visited Australia to collaborate with the team working on the 100 patient stories project. He also gave presentations in three states, and these presentations are now available.

Sydney – 16 June 2009 (PDF 469 KB)
Adelaide – 18 June 2009 (PDF 1189 KB)
Perth – 19 June 2009 (PDF 368 KB)

Open Disclosure Standard

The essential elements of open disclosure are outlined in The National Open Disclosure Standard (PDF 495 KB).

Frequently asked questions about open disclosure

Answers to frequently asked questions about open disclosure are provided in the Open Disclosure Fact Sheet (PDF 300 KB).

Evaluation of the Open Disclosure Pilot

The National Open Disclosure Standard was piloted in 40 facilities in 7 jurisdictions and the private sector. An external evaluation of the pilot, completed in late 2007, demonstrated that the Open Disclosure Standard is robust, practicable and of value to health care practitioners and consumers.

The Evaluation of the pilot of the National Open Disclosure Standard provides a rich source of evidence and information about Open Disclosure. It revealed that open disclosure is met with approval and relief on the part of health professionals (as they can now discuss matters that in the past were often seen as too difficult) and consumers (who express satisfaction when given the details of what happened).

The evaluation led to the publication of a number of articles about Open Disclosure in the peer-reviewed literature. A full list of Journal articles published as a result of the Evaluation the National Open Disclosure Pilot (PDF 56 KB) is available for download.

Australian patients and health professionals may be particularly interested in the article about the pilot of the National Open Disclosure Standard published in the Medical Journal of Australia on 7 April 2008.

An article on Patients' and family members' experiences of open disclosure following adverse events was published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. This article was selected as Paper of the Month by the Swiss Patient Safety Institute, which translated summaries into French and German.
French version of Patients' and family members' experiences of open disclosure following adverse events (PDF 48 KB)
German version of Patients' and family members' experiences of open disclosure following adverse events (PDF 48 KB)

Education module on adverse events in general practice

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care funded the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to develop an adverse events education package to assist practice teams to respond and improve the capacity of the team to openly communicate with patients following an incident or adverse event.

The education module is titled Regaining trust after an adverse event - An education module on managing adverse events in general practice (PDF 2400 KB).

It is accompanied by:
Workbook - Regaining trust after an adverse event - An education module on managing adverse events in general practice (PDF 946 KB) and
Poster - Regaining trust after an adverse event: a series of well timed conversations (PDF 1270 KB)

Open Disclosure chapter in Windows into Safety and Quality in Health Care 2008

Open Disclosure is the focus of Chapter 7 of Windows into Safety and Quality in Health Care 2008 (PDF 3637 KB). The chapter considers whether patients will be told about things that go wrong in their health care.

Open Disclosure Literature Review

The open disclosure literature review (PDF 187 KB) was conducted in February 2008. It provides an overview of recent Australian and international publications on open disclosure. It includes summaries of articles from the legal, ethics and communications literature, as well as analysis of empirical studies and policy documents on open disclosure.

Open disclosure around Australia

More information on open disclosure, including state policies and resources, is available from state health departments:

Queensland

Victoria

Western Australia

Open Disclosure resources developed by the former Council

The former Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care produced a suite of resources on Open Disclosure. Please note that these have not been updated since their publication in 2003.