Other professions face lawsuits the same as doctors?

[nexus73]

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Are there other professions who face lawsuits the same as healthcare providers (MDs, RNs, dentists, etc)? Where they deal with complex issues that can easily be argued from both sides by experts, and face huge financial and professional consequences if something bad happens? I know lawyers can get sued for malpractice, and every business has insurance if someone slips and falls, but I'm not aware of people in other professions having their livelihoods or future earnings threatened with lawsuits (even though this is rare for doctors it can happen), dragged through years of legal process, depositions, and potentially trial, then have their name reported to a national databank if they lose the case, or even if they settle and do not admit guilt.

If the 7-11 owner doesn't clean up the slushy machine spill and someone slips, the business insurance will pay for injuries, and his premiums probably go up, but he's not reported to the national convenience store database, and it's unlikely an empathetic slipper is going to get an attorney to sue for multiple millions of dollars. And at the end of the day, it seems any financial obligation is borne by the business, and worst case it goes bankrupt, but the owner isn't losing his house to pay off a lawsuit.

 

[clozareal]

I would say real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, maybe engineers. Not everyone has one of these people work for them though but almost everyone will deal with a doctor at some point if not many points in their lives.

 

[PikminOC]

The level of responsibility is very high and the pockets are very deep for medical malpractice.

 

[Stagg737]

At the risk of this turning into a political s***storm, I'd say police officers at least being placed under investigation isn't uncommon. Plus there can be significant backlash from being investigated, especially if it is serious enough to actual lead to a lawsuit.

 

[Merovinge]

Yes the majority of malpractice is complete and utter rubish, no two ways about it. MDs are notorious for being hunted by everyone for their money, financial service industry is probably the biggest offender, but lawyers clearly get their licks in too. The US does this differently than other countries where the individual doctor is shielded financially but their license is easier to lose. Here we make it so that all but the most utterly neurocognitively or substance impaired doctors keep their license but punish via financial or emotional duress instead, a most American way of approaching things.

Some states have pushed back on this either by caps in lawsuits (ala Texas) or even better like Wisconsin in which a statewide fund covers malpractice that each doctor pays (relatively little) into.

The only upside from all the liability is that business people are not as keen on replacing us and facing their own liability. We are the liability shields for midlevels and venture capital which does make job security much better.

I think the ship has sailed from a national legislative perspective but one could get involved at a local/state level to try and push more states to be physician friendly. Interestingly this work has a lot of cross-over with physician suicide so I do think psychiatrists can be ideal in this debate.