Market Solution for Malpractice

[obscurehero]

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From the NYtimes

Personally, I'm not sure I really jive with the idea of calling medicine a 'product'. Also, has medicine come to a point where we can simply instruct doctors to work within 'guidelines'. Have we shifted paradigms?

I thought good med schools had a lot of research, and that's good because physicians trained in a great research institute are not only on the cutting edge, they're trained to be innovative and to think creatively.

Plus, I think forcing doctors to work within guidelines determined by insurers (which already happens, I'm aware) seems terribly draconian with tons of 'conflict-of-interest' red lights flashing everywhere.

 

[jc235693]

Cool article. Medicine is absolutely a 'product.' At least as long as we hold a belief in liberal medicine, that is that individuals are responsible for their own healthcare and in paying for that healthcare. So, I think it is important that doctors are held accountable to some type of 'industry standard' it is also important to protect their freedom and autonomy in making medical decisions. I kind of like this guidelines idea, although I am not too sure who the author means when he says private regulators should be in charge of making these guidelines. I might be naive but don't you think the best guidelines would come from experts in each field, i.e. a committee of neurologists should come up for the guidelines to deal with neurological disorders while a committee of cardiologists deal with the heart.

 

[obscurehero]

Cool article. Medicine is absolutely a 'product.' At least as long as we hold a belief in liberal medicine, that is that individuals are responsible for their own healthcare and in paying for that healthcare. So, I think it is important that doctors are held accountable to some type of 'industry standard' it is also important to protect their freedom and autonomy in making medical decisions. I kind of like this guidelines idea, although I am not too sure who the author means when he says private regulators should be in charge of making these guidelines. I might be naive but don't you think the best guidelines would come from experts in each field, i.e. a committee of neurologists should come up for the guidelines to deal with neurological disorders while a committee of cardiologists deal with the heart.

Bam!

You hit the nail on the head. I completely agree that I'd like to think a peer-appointed committee of experts should establish the guidelines of acceptable care. Maybe some business side people to make sure that acceptable guidelines are also fiscally conscious.

I'm not sure if this is semantics, but I guess I think of a product as something like a widget where as I think of medicine maybe as more of a service. Either way, viewing it this way makes me think of medicine in terms of supply, demand, and consumption/capitalistic based expectations of it. Call me a liberal, but I'd like to think of quality healthcare as something more like education... a public good rather than a private good. Its why for-profit hospitals make me a bit concerned. However, even education is trying to figure out what kind of metrics or guidelines it needs to follow. Nothing can be harmed by limiting malpractice and increasing adherence to guidelines, I'm just not sure what kind of precedents it will establish and what the future of medicine will look like when we finally become attendings.