mzeroapplicant said:
I'm going to be a doctor, but that doesn't mean I've lost all sense of objectivity. The more I investigate the malpractice issue the more I think it's not so much a problem with the legal system being out of control, but rather a result of real errors among physicians. This article is obviously a bit partisan, but it does present a summary of the really good evidence that the medical establishment needs to focus more on how to make less mistakes and less on capping malpractice claims:
http://www.slate.com/id/2145400/
Discuss.....
I think it's both problems. Doctors make errors, and a lot of civil lawsuit lawyers/clients are blood-sucking vampires (no offense to any lawyers on this forum... I know there are plenty of lawyers who have integrity.)
I don't know how many times I've heard crazy lawsuits because some person had a fluke accident. I've been working in nursing in the last few years, and there are a lot of people out there just looking for something to sue about. Some examples:
#1 - Huge fat woman who refused to use a bedpan argued and argued and argued that she should be able to get out of bed and use a commode. We said no many many times. PT said no. Her docs said no. So, she decided to **** her bed and then refuse to let us change her sheets. She was insane. So we tried dangling her at the side of the bed. That worked alright. We tried standing her up without walking. That worked alright. So, she convinced the nursing staff and the doctor that she could get up to the commode. As soon as we took a step (I'm talking this woman was 400 pounds) she buckled and fell. She sued the hospital, she sued the doctor, and she sued her nurse.
#2 - Best OB doc I know was delivering a baby. The patient was having her 3rd natural childbirth, with the first 2 going flawlessly. She was afebrile, complained of no pain other than contractions, fetal heartbeat was normally irregular, etc. etc. Everything was going perfectly. All of a sudden, her uterus burst. The odds of that happening are around 1 in 10,000, and she had no predisposing factors. The mother survived, and the child died. They sued the doctor. I asked him what happend, and he said he paid her off (settled out of court). I asked him why the heck he would do that! He told me "My lawyer said the medical evidence was highly in my favor, I had done everything correctly, and I had a 90% chance of winning the case in court. So, I asked my lawer 'So that means I have a 10% chance of losing, why?'" Lawyer said "You'd be tried by a jury of human beings... there's never a 100% chance of winning." The doctor immediately said "Settle. I'm not risking my career on a 10% chance."
The entire US is sue happy. People spill coffee on themselves at a coffee shop, burn their skin, and sue the coffee shop. That's the kind of country we live in. Those types of suits very often settle out of court, which costs money. Less money than going to court, but it costs money. That money comes out of insurance. Who pays for doctor's malpractice insurance? Patients do, with higher fees charged by the doctor.
I am positive you could come up with just as many examples for true medical errors as I could come up with bogus malpractice suits made by greedy americans. I think they are both a part of the problem. Unfortunately for us, the only part we can control is our own performance, and I agree with you, we should always be taking steps to limit our mistakes. Our mistakes have huge consequences in people's lives sometimes. So, I'm partially agreeing with you, but I don't think you should take away any of the blame from the greedy American public.
One last point. I often times feel that the expectations for doctors is unrealistic. Doctors are human beings. In every, single job out there that is done by a human, people screw up daily. That includes medicine too. Often times residents will be in hour 20 of a 30 hour shift, and they might not have had enough coffee. Is that their fault? Humans make errors, especially when they are sleep deprived and rushed. The american public wants doctors to be all of the following:
1.) Immediately accessible 24/7.
2.) To not be busy, and spend lots of time with them.
3.) To never make any mistakes.
We're not robots. We're all going to make mistakes. I think medical staff cover them up so much because if there's any hint of an error, in this country that means you'll be sued out of your ass and possibly lose your job. The penalties are too harsh for doctors to want to be honest. Every single doctor I've ever talked to has either been sued, or has a colleague who has been. Most of them have been sued. They aren't allowed to make mistakes, so why would they ever admit to one if they want to continue practicing?