Man up, Doctors!
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The tort “reformers” have been doing their usual whining, and I’ve been looking for a way to shut them up. Today, I may have come upon a solution, or at least, the foundation for a solution. And here it is: doctors, healthcare providers of all stripes, medical liability insurance executives, risk control managers, male and/or female and anything in between–it’s time to man up–as in, take responsibility for your screwups that injure and kill patients, and then be quiet.
Why? Because you don’t know how good you’ve got it here in America. Just take a gander at what the LawProfs will be eyeing come December in Austria. That’s right, a global conference on medical malpractice which will include an idea unfamiliar to most US healthcare workers: criminal liability. As in jail, fines or both. Unless of course, you practice in a country where the sentences include stoning.
If you are sitting there slack-jawed and wondering what I mean by hectoring you to “Man Up,” I suggest you read Ben Zimmer’s awesome On Language article in today’s New York Times, which article is conveniently titled, “Man Up.” Though there are some definitions that are too reliant on the idea of an infusion of excess testosterone, the essential meaning is this: be a mensch, and live up to your responsibilities, i.e., to your patients. Don’t deny liability. Don’t fail to apologize. Don’t open up your own MRI center, suggest to your medical network what a great idea it is to rule things out with MRI’s, make a fortune, and publicly moan about the need to practice defensive medicine. Don’t speechify about the medical malpractice “crisis,” because you and I both know that cases are way down. Don’t bemoan what you are paying in medical liability premiums, because by now you have come to realize that your rates have little to nothing to do with with the amount of medical malpractice cases being defended. Don’t make snide comments about plaintiff’s lawyers, because you know that when one of your colleagues causes you lifelong grief after making a preventable error while treating your wife, child, parent, best friend, you’ll come running to us, because we can help you.
If you think criminal prosecution of medical negligence can’t or won’t happen here, you are wrong. It has already, as is outlined in this article on the Criminal Prosecution of Medical Negligence. In fact (and as I have discussed in prior posts), two former colleagues in the Queens County District Attorney’s Office successfully prosecuted an amoral OB/GYN who left a patient to bleed out and die in his clinic so that he could treat the many other unfortunates lined up in other rooms. He never called for help, even when he realized what was happening. It was outrageous. It was beyond gross negligence. And it should serve as a warning to those who continue to lump plaintiff’s lawyers, plaintiffs themselves, and the mythical medical malpractice “crisis” together as one collection of fraudulent schemers paving the road to “jackpot justice.”
Get real. Man up. Be a mensch.
6 Comments on this post
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throckmorton said:
I do not have a problem with criminal charges when there is a willful action to cause injury. The problem is that is not what the vast expenses in the Medical Liability Industry are all about. The problem is the Medical Liabilty Business Model. Instead of it being about helping patients who are injured, it is about financing attorneys, insurance companies and physicians. For attorneys, the goal is to ring up billable hours to encourage settlements, for insurance companies it is about the more the treat of liabilty, the more they can charge and keep the interest, and for physicians, it means the more they need to test for and potentially reap the rewards of the tests.
So, lets let the money for liabilty go to the patients. Lets all “man up” and look at our business models.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:16 pm -
med bill pro said:
All services performed by physicians are subject to an “allowed amount”. We can charge any amount but are told by insurance what they will pay and providers write off the difference if they are in-network with the plan. That $1500 MRI? Maybe pays $250 with the insurance contract dictating the allowed amount and patient responsibility. How many MRI’s will it take to pay off that $1,000,000 machine?
I don’t think lawyers operate under the same type of system. If we settle a law suit are you restricted on what you will accept in payment? No, lawyers just bill by the hour and take what they need out of the settlement. Will you give the patient a 20% discount for paying in full? Of course not, you’ve already been paid for your services. Just how much was the fax that was sent from your office?
September 8th, 2010 at 3:17 am -
Andrew Barovick said:
For us lawyers, it is either a contingency fee, or billable hours, the rate for which is agreed upon in advance. For plaintiff’s lawyers, it is very rare to use anything other than a contingency fee basis. And we can’t alter our fees. They are set by statute, both for medical malpractice, and standard negligence. On rare occasions, plaintiff’s lawyers will petition the court for an increased fee based on having done more than the usual amount of work.
September 8th, 2010 at 5:46 am -
throckmorton said:
Isn’t it contingency plus expenses?
September 11th, 2010 at 6:35 am -
Andrew Barovick said:
It is. And often there are liens from healthcare insurance providers on the client’s award that must be repaid from it (the award).
September 11th, 2010 at 8:44 am -
Andrew Barovick said:
Just in case anyone was still having doubts about the possibility of jail, remote though it may be, a Cape Cod, MA physician will spend 3 months in jail for leaving an abortion patient unattended, and then covering up his modus operandi after the patient’s death. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100915/NEWS/9150327
September 16th, 2010 at 6:18 pm