As a doctor, is worrying about being sued just paranoia?

[jjoeirv]

If you get sued as a medical doctor for making a medical mistake, your malpractice insurance will go up, but wouldn't your personal assets and money be protected from confiscation? How many mistakes as a doctor would you have to make before your career is over?

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[ckent]

Most docs are sued at least once in their career, and it really sucks to be sued (stress, embarrassment, potential of financial and professional loss), so I don't think that docs are too paranoid about it at all. One family practice doc told me that any settlement made against her that was over her malpractice insurance settlement limit would not be her responsibility as she was an employee of my school, but it's different for people in private practice who own their practice. All it takes is one major foul up and the state board licensing people can take away your license. You can apply for a license in other states after this though, but if your mistake was too bad (eg gross negligence/malpractice), you won't get it. I haven't seen any studies on this, but I think that one of the most common reasons that the board takes away doctor's licenses must be for doctors sleeping with their patients; my dad gets an annual mailing from the state licensing board that lists all of the doctors that they have taken action against and why, and I'm always reading about how docs had sexual relations with their patients as a reason (esp in psychiatry).

 

[SunnyS81]

Having just seen a commercial on TV while eating dinner saying, "If your child has cerebral palsy (sp?), problems walking, or talking, it may be caused by the administration of care during pregnancy and delivery. Call us now."

I say, no. It's not paranoia.

 

[rxfudd]

I posted this earlier in a different thread - this is a link to a medical malpractice forum - similar to this one, but for people looking to sue doctors for malpractice. Some people have really interesting stories where malpractice definitely took place, but others...

http://www.prairielaw.com/messageboards/board.asp?channelId=24&mbId=15

 

[Goofyone]

Originally posted by ckent
..... I'm always reading about how docs had sexual relations with their patients as a reason (esp in psychiatry).

I thought by being a doctor I could finally get a chick that's NOT a psycho.

 

[Caffeinated]

No, I don't think it's paranoia. There are a lot of folks out there looking for an easy payday, and everyone is out to be a victim. Couple the glamorization of victimhood with lawyers run amok, and the lawsuit lottery is now a booming business. I don't think in my lifetime the perception of "rich doctors" will ever be overcome. As such, physicians will remain targets of frivilous litigation for quite a while.

Apart from the general tendency to settle any argument in court, there is a growing sentiment in American culture of assigning blame to physicians whenever someone suffers a disease or death. The recent untimely death of John Ritter highlights the media's role in propogating this ideology. It's subtle, but listen to the way they report it. A local TV station here reported that "doctors discovered an undetected tear in his aorta, the artery that caries blood from the heart." In the media business, words are chosen very carefully, and this combination of words is intended to stir up the public. At first it sounds like nonsense: if they discovered it then how is it "undetected"?! The underlying message here is that you, Joe Media Consumer, could also have a tear in your aorta, and your doctor is being negligent if he/ she don't find it before it kills you. You better go to your doctor now and insist that he/she find that tear! Of course the newscaster will never tell you that the tear could have JUST happened before he collapsed, and hence would have been undetected because it may not have EXISTED the last time he saw his doctor!

But then again, maybe I am just part of the paranoid medical establishment....

 

[Goofyone]

Originally posted by Caffeinated

A local TV station here reported that "doctors discovered an undetected tear in his aorta, the artery that caries blood from the heart." In the media business, words are chosen very carefully, and this combination of words is intended to stir up the public. At first it sounds like nonsense: if they discovered it then how is it "undetected"?! The underlying message here is that you, Joe Media Consumer, could also have a tear in your aorta, and your doctor is being negligent if he/ she don't find it before it kills you. You better go to your doctor now and insist that he/she find that tear! Of course the newscaster will never tell you that the tear could have JUST happened before he collapsed, and hence would have been undetected because it may not have EXISTED the last time he saw his doctor!

But then again, maybe I am just part of the paranoid medical establishment....

Maybe the doctor that discovered the tear was a pathologist? That's one doctor I wouldn't want to discover mine.