Coordinated, Collaborative Management of an Outbreak: Lessons for Maintenance of Patient Trust

Abstract

One of the tenets of a successful provider-patient relationship is trust, and trust can only be maintained with bidirectional open and honest communication. This is especially true in communicating possible untoward outcomes of our surgeries. In this issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the article by Chandrasekar and colleagues1 shares the experience of one of the largest pediatric cardiac surgery centers in the United States with the outbreak of the Mycobacterium chimaera infection in cardiac surgical patients.