Disclosure: Hospital transparency towards patients and their families as a paradigm

Abstract

This study aims to understand what the disclosure means for patients and their families after receiving it and what its implementation involves in the hospital environment. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, for which a semi-structured questionnaire with open questions was applied to patients and their families who had already received the disclosure, and another questionnaire was applied to health professionals who had already performed the disclosure, within a period of up to two years before data collection, totaling six participants. The health professionals approached the initial difficulty of implementation due to resistance by some and insecurity due to lack of training, however, after proper training and correct knowledge of how the disclosure works, its implementation was properly implemented within the patient safety process, becoming routine practice when facing moderate, severe and fatal adverse events. With this, it is possible to observe its relevance within patient safety, as it promotes transparency among professionals, patients and families, brings improvements in the quality of health care, encourages notification by professionals, as it addresses the just accountability culture.