The attending physician's colleague should be informed of the medical error, and steps should be taken to prevent future errors. Physicians are ethically and legally obligated to disclose medical errors to patients. Medical errors do not necessarily represent unethical behavior, negligence, or malpractice; however, failure to disclose errors may. Nondisclosure, if discovered, damages trust, engenders patient and family anger, and increases the likelihood of legal action. In contrast, full disclosure facilitates informed decision making about future care. Patients who are informed of medical errors and receive authentic apologies are more likely to be forgiving and work with involved caregivers. In this case, the colleague who erred in prescribing trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole should be held accountable for the error. However, informing the colleague of the error is not the patient's responsibility. Instead, the attending physician has this responsibility and should hold the colleague accountable (for example, by taking steps to prevent future errors).

Although the pharmacy shares responsibility for the error, assigning blame at this stage (before an investigation is held) is inappropriate.

The attending physician should not offer to transfer the patient's care to a physician at another hospital unless a trusting and therapeutic relationship with the patient no longer exists or the patient desires the transfer.