I have to agree with Kenneth on the Med Mal Issue. In the interests of full disclosure, I am an attorney who now practices in the area of Trusts, Estates and Elder Law.
My practice is in Maryland. Years ago when I tried cases I handled two malpractice cases, both of which were clear cases of malpractice and both of which I won. However, I had opportunity to take many more malpractice, which I declined.
The fact is that it is very expensive to try a malpractice case and there were cases of clear malpractice were the injuries were so slight they could not justify the suit. There were other cases where the expert witnesses that I referred the case for an opinion could not establish malpractice.
These days I refer med mal cases fairly regularly to lawyers who specialize in these types of cases and less than one in twenty results in a claim being made.
My wife is a med tech at a large hospital in Baltimore City and because of this we have many friends in the medical profession. Almost everyone of her friends advises anyone who goes into a hospital today to be sure they have an advocate with them to enhance your chances of not being the victim of malpractice. 40 years ago, I never heard this advice, but I do today from every medical professional I know, including a friend I have who works for an organization which lobbies for Hospital.
I always ask, "if you claim that the malpractice suits are frivolous, why is that I need a medical advocate to protect me from malpractice". They just look at me and shrug their shoulders.
There is something else going on in the profession. I noticed this the last two times I was in the hospital. I was lucky to see a nurse once a day. Most of my contact was with aides. The nurses spent most of their time filling out paper work.
There is something going on, I don't know what. But I keep asking myself, " why do nurses spend most of their day filling out forms instead of taking care of patients".
My wife and others tell me of malpractice that occurs, which doesn't result in law suits, because the patient is not aware of the negligence involved.
It is my opinion that malpractice law suits are not usually frivolous and that there is far more malpractice that occurs that ever gets reported.
I do not buy the defensive medicine argument. If doctors were truly practicing defensive medicine, there would not be so much malpractice.
Lastly, it is well documented that most of the malpractice is committed by a small minority of the Doctors, but Doctors resist exposing these bad Docs, contributing to their own problems.
lj |
