What is the Cycle of Blame?

What is the Cycle of Blame?: "What is the Cycle of Blame?
The Cycle of Blame is a continuous and perilous loop that is robbing our nation's finest healthcare providers of their ability to freely practice the true art of medicine. Here's what happens during the Cycle:
1. An unanticipated adverse outcome occurs.
2. Blame is assigned to one or more of the medical team or provider staff.
3. Those assigned blame for the adverse outcome fear career, legal or other repercussions.
4. A 'deny and defend' corporate stance mandates cover-up of the issues leading to the adverse outcome.
5. The cover-up creates a network of new problems: most importantly failure to fix the underlying cause of the adverse outcome, as well as possibly including mistrust and frustration on the part of the medical team, angry patients and patients’ families, a poor community image for the provider, and more.
Additionally, the Cycle of Blame is extracting an enormous and unnecessary financial cost from provider organizations and insurance companies, their patients and ultimately, our nation, in the form of medical malpractice claims.
How do you escape the Cycle of Blame and its negative consequences and move to a blame-free culture critical to identifying problems and improving patient safety?"