After the Error: How Veterinary Teams Respond and Recover

Course overview

This program gives veterinary hospital leaders a practical framework for responding to medical error within their teams. Grounded in just culture and patient safety research from both veterinary and human medicine, the session treats error as a team and system event rather than an individual failing. Participants will learn to lead the response in the first hours after an error is identified, disclose to clients honestly while protecting the client relationship, support the team member involved (often called the second victim), and build the psychological safety and reporting culture that helps prevent the next error. The session is anchored by a take-home response playbook and quick-reference checklist that leaders can adapt and use in their own hospitals. Keywords: medical error, just culture, patient safety, psychological safety, error disclosure, second victim, root cause analysis, error reporting, veterinary teams, leadership.