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

    Thursday, April 22, 2004

    Letters: New England Journal of Medicine readers respond to the medical malpractice crisis:


    As a medical-malpractice defense attorney and former practicing anesthesiologist, I read with interest the report on malpractice by Studdert et al. (Jan. 15 issue).1 The authors note that "because they must absorb the costs of managing litigation, . . . plaintiffs' attorneys have an incentive to make careful decisions about which cases to take." Unfortunately, this is not always what I see in practice.

    Some plaintiffs' lawyers simply file a complaint, essentially a form on which they fill in the blanks with a few pertinent facts. The burden then shifts to the defendant to provide a defense. This process involves months, if not years, of discovery (e.g., depositions and interrogatories), often primarily at the defendant's expense. An unjustified case is then often dropped when the plaintiff's attorney is confronted with discovery that is inconsistent with the complaint. In the meantime, the defendant has paid legal bills, court expenses, transcript fees, expert fees, and other expenses.


    From my own experience, and those of other doctors I know, what this attorney describes is the norm. Plaintiff's attorneys are known to file cases against the wrong doctor because they didn't take the time to find out which Dr. Jones at X hospital took care of the patient. Not to mention the practice of suing every doctor the patient has ever seen, even if they had nothing to do with the case in question. These sorts of abuses should be easy to correct with legislation without restricting anyone's access to justice. Shouldn't they? (A fine for filing cases against the wrong person or someone not involved in the case would be a good start.)
     

    posted by Sydney on 4/22/2004 09:53:00 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