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One of my readers here at the Placebo Gazette pointed out an article to me from a group called Public Citizen. I have known about this organization for quite awhile and I'm not their biggest fan. I think they are very extreme in their methods in which they criticize the government, the president and the pharmaceutical industry. I know that sounds weird coming from me but I think they push the envelope more than they need to. Their latest endeavor is calling the medical malpractice crisis a "hoax".
The article is very long and I'm going to leave the link here for you to read. I'm very curious on your thoughts. Here is the piece in its entirety:
The article is very long and I'm going to leave the link here for you to read. I'm very curious on your thoughts. Here is the piece in its entirety:
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7497&secID=1720&catID=126
A couple concerns I have right off the bat is that my hunch is Public Citizen is anti-physician. While I agree that there are a very small minority of physicians that cause a lot of malpractice claims it does not prove to me there isn’t a malpractice insurance crisis. The group seems to want to nail every physician may can for any mistake that happens. I have read too many personal e-mails to me explaining the travesty of our court systems and what it does to physicians to take this article by Public Citizen seriously. If you read other mainstream medical journals such as Medical Economics you will find personal stories that are horrifying. Doctors have been sued many times for no reason at all in shotgun style lawsuits; all of which had driven these doctors to quit the profession or to lose their ability to care. To me, this is the worst outcome that has happened over the medical liability issue. I await your thoughts.
3 comments:
Two paragraphs into this stupid "report" and it reeks of agenda. Promoting a "crisis" in safety is how these idiots now force struggling docs to re-certify more often and at their own expense. Sure, sure, the majority of "real" suits come from a few bad docs. But how about the billions wasted in defensive medicine, and the doctor learning to regard every single patient as an adversary? Any more when an ER patient whines to me about not wanting an expensive test, I just point out how their lawyer will be very upset with me if I don't order it. I have colleagues considering going "bare" or closing shop, because they can't afford premiums that will allow plaintiffs to win a small cash prize in the event of a loved one's illness.
I subscribe to some of their publications and I appreciate their consumer orientation. However, I take their rhetoric about incompetent doctors with a grain of salt because they have a bias: Public Citizen is predominantly an organization of lawyers, and no lawyer will ever say that the tort system is the problem. The doctors blame the malpractice situation on the trial lawyers and insurance companies. The trial lawyers blame the insurance companies and doctors. Here's a report/analysis from NY State, blaming the tort system and saying it's not the insurance companies:http://www.empirecenter.org/2006/11/berger_commissi.cfm
Anyone that states the malpractice issue is not a significant problem is either lying, an imbicile, or not involved in treating patients in the real world. I recently got to put behind me a 2 year ordeal where I was sued for telling a 13 y/o that she should not have INTENTIALLY gotten pregnant!!! The mother was disgruntled because I was not happy and positive for her daughter. This was really a prime example of BS in our legal system. If one can be sued for doing your job or not doing your job or not sufficiently documenting for doing your job it is a no win situation that has you feeling like every day is a war zone.
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