Elwy et al. (2014) USA Identifying elements of large-scale adverse event disclosure processes to improve future disclosure Open disclosure Semi-structured interviews 97 Participants: 27 patients and family members, 38 employees, 28 leaders and 4 congressional staff members 9 Veterans Health Administration facilities Disclosure recommendations, including increased preparation, tailored communication, reduced complexity and changed disclosure language Etchegaray et al. (2014) USA To analyse and understand how patients and family members can help with the analysis of adverse events Patient involvement in adverse event analysis Interviews

5 Patients and 4 family members,

6 clinicians and 13 hospital administrators

6 Hospitals Recommendations on including patients and family members in event analysis, but in a patient-centred way Friele and Sluijs (2006) Netherlands To investigate patients' expectations of complaints handling in hospitals before the initial conversation Complaints procedure Survey 424 Patients 74 Hospitals Complaints procedures need to include all stakeholders and be open for change to fit patient expectations Friele et al. (2008) Netherlands To investigate how patients experienced the actual complaints handling process and how this relates to their (unmet) expectations Complaints procedure Survey 279 Patients 74 Hospitals Less than one-third of the patients considered the complaints process to have led to justice. Patient expectations could be better met if there is more attention for impartiality, apologies and providing information on changes made Gallagher (2009) USA To learn more about effective disclosure strategies Open disclosure Case study 1 Patient 1 Hospital Recommendations for open disclosure, such as making trust an active part of disclosure conversations, and the value of involving patients in error analysis Hyman and Schechter (2006) USA To measure the participants' satisfaction with mediation of medical malpractice lawsuits Mediation Structured interviews 24 Plaintiffs and the other participants in each mediation Referral by a hospital cooperation and 2 other NYC agencies Plaintiffs tend to experience mediation as fair, satisfying and responsive to their interests Iedema et al. (2011) Australia To establish principles for effective disclosure on the basis of the patients' and family members' experiences of disclosure Open disclosure Semi-structured interviews 39 Patients and 80 family members Participating health services Disclosure rarely met the expectations of patients and family members, which health care institutions should improve Iedema et al. (2008) Australia To establish what works in open disclosure for patients and health care staff (evaluation of the Open Disclosure Pilot) Open disclosure Interviews 23 Patients and family members, and 131 clinical staff 21 Hospitals (where pilot was implemented) Overwhelming support for open disclosure from both staff and patients Iedema et al. (2008) Australia To map the perceptions of patients and family members with open disclosure and adverse events Open disclosure Semi-structured interviews 15 Patients and 8 family members 21 Hospitals Open disclosure processes need staff to be sensitive in communication, offer an apology, provide lasting support and assign patients an active role in learning from the health care incident Langer et al. (2017) Germany To assess the feasibility of a patient–teacher medical error disclosure and prevention model Open disclosure through patient teaching Mixed method (pre- and postsurvey and workshop) 71 Patients and family members and 53 clinicians 2 Hospitals Patient–educators are feasible and promising. Maguire et al. (2016) USA To evaluate a disclosure policy for large-scale adverse events Open disclosure Semi-structured interviews

97 Total:

27 patients and family members,

70 with (VA central office) leaders, hospital employees, congressional staff member

9 Hospitals Key problems identified: timely communication, a supportive culture, follow-up and sharing lessons learned Moore et al. (2017) USA To explore whether patients and their family members can provide important elements to increase reconciliation through a CRP because of their own experiences Communication-and-Resolution Programme Semi-structured interviews 27 Patients, 3 family members, and 10 staff 3 Hospitals Overall positive experiences with CRPs (18 out of 30 patients and family members); the study shows the importance of communicating safety efforts, and including the right people in the disclosure among other things Murtagh et al. (2012) USA To analyse how patients respond to different financial compensation offers Disclosure-and-Resolution Programme Online survey using vignettes 2112 Panellists 18 years of age and older Vignettes based on hospital programmes Generous compensation offers do not necessarily decrease chances that patients will seek legal advice and can negatively affect patient views on the candour of apologies and disclosure. The health care incident increases chances of changing doctors Piper et al. (2014) Australia To understand patients' and family members' experiences of open disclosure in rural areas and offer recommendations Open disclosure Interviews 13 Patients and family members Mostly the Emergency Department of a local hospital Challenges for rural hospitals (e.g., lack of resources, delays, distance between services) have an impact on how disclosure policies are implemented Sorensen et al. (2009) Australia To understand how patients and professionals experience open disclosure and how practice can inform policy (through gaining empirical evidence) Open disclosure Interviews 15 Patients, 8 family members, 20 nursing staff, 49 medical staff, 50 clinical/administrative staff and 3 policy coordinators 21 Hospitals and health services The study can guide policy when focusing on five ‘key elements’: initiate disclosure, an apology, actively reasoning from the patient's perspective (including providing information on changes), communication, cultural awareness Walton et al. (2019) Australia To determine the existence of formal open disclosure processes (implementation of national policy) and the experiences of the patients with these processes Open disclosure Survey 7661 Participants New South Wales hospitals Patients' experiences may be better if they are informed about their right to full disclosure and open disclosure guidelines should be reviewed and drafted for bedside disclosure