Defensive Medicine And Its Impact On Health Care

Is this a case when the physician should be called to the telephone because of the threat of an impending suit?

Medical malpractice lawsuits are an extremely serious topic and have affected numerous patients, doctors, and hospitals across the country. Medical malpractice is defined as “improper, unskilled or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional” (Medical malpractice, n.d.). If a doctor acts negligent and causes harm to a patient, malpractice lawsuits arise. Negligence is the concept of the liability concerning claims of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of tort law. Tort law provides that one person may litigate negligence to recover damages for personal injury. Negligence laws are designed to deter careless behavior and also to

Every one of us has relied on a medical professional at least a few times in our lives. When we get seriously ill, or suffer a serious injury, we put our health in the hands of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, fully expecting to be treated with a certain degree of professionalism and safety. Unfortunately, sometimes the expected care is not given, or not given to the extent which the ailment requires. In these situations, we can feel blindsided, confused, even taken advantage of.

as defensive medicine practice, new technology, malpractice lawsuit and the uninsured. New technology is the biggest factor of the rising cost of healthcare to treated patient of their illness. New technologies have seemed to be the driving force of high healthcare cost in America. The technology accounts for 38 to 65 percent of healthcare spending in America (Johnson, 2011). The annual spending of health care increased from 75 billion in 1970 to 2.0 trillion in 2005 and is estimated to reach 4.0 trillion in 2015 (Kaiser Foundation, 2013). U.S. citizens spent 5,267 per capita for health care in 2002- 53 percent more than any other country” (2005). “America spent 5267 per capita and in Switzerland they spent 3074 per capita” about 1821 cheaper than ours (Starfield, B 2010). Controlling the technology isn’t easy thing to do because of technology prices are set by manufacturing and the installer of the new medical equipment’s. However, there other way

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.

Blendon, R. DesRoches, C. Brodie, M., Benson, J. Rosen, A., & Schneider, A. (2002). Views of practicing physicians and the public on medical errors. New England Journal of Medicine. 347, 1933-1940.

A second issue is malpractice. Malpractice issues are always present in an unstable environment where patients will seek to remedy an incident if they feel they have been harmed (Hamric, 2009). It is important to always act in a reasonable way as a health care clinician but unfortunately there are always those who are negligent in their actions as practitioners.

Tort suits consist of such actions as medical negligence, personal injury, bad faith and products liability claims. If the negligence or wrongful conduct of another party can be proven, the injured party may be entitled to monetary compensation from that party in the form of economic and non-economic damages.” (NPR). This means that any patient receiving medical attention or even any patient obtaining attention from a psychiatrist can take the practicing doctor rendering care to court. If in anyway the patient feels like at one point treatment has been neglected. The ugly truth is that it seems to be the exact case in America. That is one of the reasons why any type of provider from healthcare to even cosmetic can have outrages prices when providing care. That is why medical malpractice insurance is a most in every state to avoid scammer from claiming to have a tort committed while under a providers care. Lastly is defensive medicine. “Defensive medicine occurs when doctors order tests, procedures, or visits, or avoid high-risk patients or procedures, primarily (but not necessarily or solely) to reduce their exposure to malpractice liability. When physicians do extra tests or procedures primarily to reduce malpractice liability, they are practicing positive defensive medicine. When they avoid certain patients or procedures, they are practicing

Defensive medicine has also contributed to the over-utilization of healthcare services. Providers tend to order unnecessary tests, medications, and procedures in order to evade malpractice

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.Health care costs are far higher in the United States than in any other advanced nation, whether measured in total dollars spent, as a percentage of the economy, or on a per capita basis. And health costs here have been rising significantly faster

A large percentage of current doctors are reaching the age of retirement and many students are turned off from the field for multiple reasons. One of the greatest disadvantages of having any medical job that involves such high stakes, are the pressures of professional liability. Many doctors are at risk of being sued for malpractice during their medical careers. Medical liability can deter doctors away from tending to high risk patients or even practicing at all. According to a study conducted by the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, “58% of OB-GYNs said they changed how they practiced due to the risk or fear of being sued. Slightly more than one out of four OB-GYNs (27%) decreased the number of high-risk patients, 24% increased the number of cesarean deliveries, 19% stopped offering VBACs, and 6% dropped obstetrics altogether” ("Women's Health Care Physicians.”). The care these physicians provide is essential, especially for women who are in high-risk situations. No woman should have to worry about being denied treatment by a doctor for fear of being potentially sued. When obstetricians-gynecologists are sued, the effects are detrimental to multiple aspects of the their career. Not only does it bring about a large mess of legal issues, but it also takes a toll on the mental health and confidence of these trained medical professionals. This

From a personal standpoint I believe that the excessiveness of litigation is hurting the field of healthcare due to the affects in many different areas. It reduces access that patients need. Due to the misuse and disloyal antics of people making false accusations to self gain we will continue to see a rise in healthcare. I do not feel that all accusations are false, but I do believe that litigation has become successful due to dishonesty. In order for there to be financial distress for us all as a country we must flow diligently with each other. From a malpractice standpoint they need to ensure that their patients are taken care of to the best of their ability and that they are taking the precautions needed to ensure no

American’s have an inherent distrust of the service industry, healthcare included. Out of fear of malpractice lawsuits, many physicians and healthcare providers to practice often unnecessary and expensive defensive medicine. This drives up costs without the supporting quality outcomes.

Sometimes physicians go so far as to make patients feel belittled and helpless. Patients, in turn, are relatively passive and accommodating, at least while they are with their doctors"(du Pre 53).

Imagine you are injured or sick and have sought a doctor’s help. Although you trusted your doctor, something, something seemingly very in control of the doctor, went wrong. You are angry and confused, but also think of the commonality of medical malpractice. So, why do doctors, who are supposed to help, harm? Though many flaws influence it, malpractice can be, and often is unintentional. Most doctors aren’t trained to harm their patients. Inexperience and lack of medical discovery led to unintentional suffering of the patient. Personal flaws, like lack of willingness to abandon previous medical methods and shortcomings in communication also harm patients. Further reasons why doctors harm are socio-medical understandings that breed hate, prejudices stemming from a society’s belief about certain people, such as the medical practice under the Nazi regime. Additionally, displayed in the case of Ignác Semmelweis, judgement of one to oneself can be detrimental to any progress one’s ideas could make. We will examine these concepts through Jerome Groopman’s “Flesh-and-Blood Decision Making”, Sherwin Nuland’s The Doctors’ Plague and Barbara Bachrach’s “In the Name of Public Health”. Those who practice medicine are, unfortunately, unfree from the imperfections that plague all of humanity. Through these intimate and varied faults, doctors do harm.