PS As for the crazy neurosurgeon, I agree with the analogy that competence is paramount. But character imo is equally important, it's best to get a second opinion from a less talented surgeon one trusts to ensure the surgery is indeed necessary.
From what I’ve read about it, I understand that the risk of being sued for malpractice has little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes. There are doctors who make a lot of mistakes and never get sued and there are those who make few mistakes, but get sued a lot. Obviously there’s a lot in between as well. Most patients suffering under medical error, never sue. Of course they have been harmed, but they sue when they feel that they have received inadequate personal attention. When they perceive negligence. People do not sue doctors they like.
From voice testing in medical situations, some interesting implications towards dealing with the medical malpractice clusterf*ck we have in this country. At the least an opportunity to cut spending dramatically, because basically it’s free. Impossible to argue with the economics of it. Unfortunately it would put a lot of people out of work which is what happens when you assume that healthcare is a commodity.
What was found was that doctors with dominant voices were more likely to be used, I mean sued, but a surgeon with a less dominant, more concerned sounding voice was more likely to land up in the non-sued group. Physicians who had never been sued tended to spend a few minutes more with their patients, I believe about 3, than doctors who had been sued. The non sued group were much more likely to have made, orienting comments and to engage in active listening. They were far more likely to laugh or be funny. The amount and/or quality of the information dispensed was found to be similar. The difference was entirely in how they talked to their patients.
Stripping out the content, what doctors and patients were actually saying to each other, and leaving just some sort of sonic modulation, reveals correlations nigh causation between intonation, pitch and rhythm, and who get’s sued and who doesn’t. By designating sound proxies for things such as warmth, aggression, hostility and anxiousness it was possible to predict which doctors were more likely to be sued.
Obviously a lot of work needs to be done on medical error as well since this by itself, is a massive problem. But malpractice suits occur when respect for the patient is missing. So I think you raise a good point. |
