1-1banner
 
medpundit
 

 
Commentary on medical news by a practicing physician.
 

 
Google
  • Epocrates MedSearch Drug Lookup




  • MASTER BLOGS





    "When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov




    ''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.''
    -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.




    "Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel



    email: medpundit-at-ameritech.net

    or if that doesn't work try:

    medpundit-at-en.com



    Medpundit RSS


    Quirky Museums and Fun Stuff


    Who is medpundit?


    Tech Central Station Columns



    Book Reviews:
    Read the Review

    Read the Review

    Read the Review

    More Reviews

    Second Hand Book Reviews

    Review


    Medical Blogs

    rangelMD

    DB's Medical Rants

    Family Medicine Notes

    Grunt Doc

    richard[WINTERS]

    code:theWebSocket

    Psychscape

    Code Blog: Tales of a Nurse

    Feet First

    Tales of Hoffman

    The Eyes Have It

    medmusings

    SOAP Notes

    Obels

    Cut-to -Cure

    Black Triangle

    CodeBlueBlog

    Medlogs

    Kevin, M.D

    The Lingual Nerve

    Galen's Log

    EchoJournal

    Shrinkette

    Doctor Mental

    Blogborygmi

    JournalClub

    Finestkind Clinic and Fish Market

    The Examining Room of Dr. Charles

    Chronicles of a Medical Mad House

    .PARALLEL UNIVERSES.

    SoundPractice

    Medgadget
    Health Facts and Fears

    Health Policy Blogs

    The Health Care Blog

    HealthLawProf Blog

    Facts & Fears

    Personal Favorites

    The Glittering Eye

    Day by Day

    BioEdge

    The Business Word Inc.

    Point of Law

    In the Pipeline

    Cronaca

    Tim Blair

    Jane Galt

    The Truth Laid Bear

    Jim Miller

    No Watermelons Allowed

    Winds of Change

    Science Blog

    A Chequer-Board of Night and Days

    Arts & Letters Daily

    Tech Central Station

    Blogcritics

    Overlawyered.com

    Quackwatch

    Junkscience

    The Skeptic's Dictionary



    Recommended Reading

    The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams


    Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 by Elizabeth Fenn


    Intoxicated by My Illness by Anatole Broyard


    Raising the Dead by Richard Selzer


    Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy


    The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks


    The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo


    A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich




    MEDICAL LINKS

    familydoctor.org

    American Academy of Pediatrics

    General Health Info

    Travel Advice from the CDC

    NIH Medical Library Info

     



    button

    Tuesday, January 14, 2003

    Law and Medicine: DB's Medical Rants has the latest waves in the med mal crisis - now it’s New Jersey that’s starting to feel the pinch. (His comment section has a lot of good points, too.) Chris Rangel has a series of letters from a lawyer

    Lawyers have been on my mind a lot lately, and not just because of the medical malpractice crisis. It seems that everywhere I turned last week I was hearing about lawyers. First, I had a patient who was trying to get an auto insurance company to cover the physical therapy he had after an auto accident. The insurance company’s lawyer says his xrays show a chronic condition that’s responsible for his back pain. Trouble is, the “chronic condition” is nothing more than an anatomic variant. It isn’t a disease. It certainly didn’t cause his back pain after the accident. Don’t lawyers have an obligation to make sure their allegations are based on reality?

    In stark contrast, later day another patient came in who had been in a car accident a month ago. He said he “was told to get himself checked out.” (I’m guessing he answered one of those mailings that people get from personal-injury lawyers after accidents.) He really had no physical findings on exam, and had minimal complaints. Yet, as he left, he said he hoped to “get something out of it.” Grrrrrrr.

    But the most nettlesome case is a patient who I suspect is getting ready to sue me. She doesn’t realize it yet, but that’s what’s going to happen. She thinks that she’ll just be suing the hospital. But my name’s on that hospital chart, and sure as shootin’ I’ll be dragged into it. She’s angry about a recent surgery she had. I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of what it is that she’s so upset about, at least not medically. She had some respiratory complications afterwards, but she was treated appropriately and nothing bad happened to her. Her surgery resulted in the desired outcome. No problems there. Yet, every time she comes into the office for something she vents about the hospital. She got her records. Her son is going over them with a fine tooth comb. Her daughter-in-law says this. Her pastor says that. The only consistent complaint I hear each time is that “they” were rude to her pastor. (I’m not sure what “they” did, but I think that a nurse tried to explain to her pastor that she wasn’t at liberty to divulge any information about the patient, since he wasn’t a family member.) Yet, that is the crux of the matter. Her final salvo is always, “Besides, they were rude to my pastor.” This is the sad truth about many, perhaps most, malpractice cases. They begin in anger over something that usually has nothing to do with medical care. Or, they have their origins in second-guessing by relatives and friends.

    So why is it that one lawyer can misuse medical information to thwart a valid claim, and another can file suit where there is no injury? Why is it that they can exploit misplaced anger so easily? Shouldn’t they hold themselves to a higher standard?
     

    posted by Sydney on 1/14/2003 07:38:00 AM 0 comments

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    This page is powered by Blogger, the easy way to update your web site.

    Main Page

    Ads

    Home   |   Archives

    Copyright 2006