side note: This is unfortunately all too common among doctors in our country. I’d say most, if not all people who want to end up in medicine get in for the right reasons: they want to help people. We live in a world however that is filled with lawsuits and lawyers….that will for the most part, take on any case, even if they themselves believe it’s without merit. This leads to the 83% of frivolous lawsuits that are put through our legal system each year. We are at a crossroads in regards to our health care……the costs are spiraling out of control, and one of the first steps we can take is to help protect our physicians, doctors and other healthcare professionals from unfair lawsuits. This leads the doctors to perform unnecessary tests….etc, which leads to more expensive healthcare costs…..and when you start doing this to most people…..the costs are staggering! Defensive Medicine…or CYA medicine (Cover Your Ass) needs to be addressed! If it is….then other things such as frivolous lawsuits will start to decline…along with healthcare costs. That will lead to lower medical malpractice insurance costs for doctors.

By Manoj Jain
Special to The Washington Post

Some months ago, the receptionist in my clinic handed me a registered letter. The name of the sender seemed familiar. “Dear Sir,” the letter read. “Please be advised that this letter serves as official notice that I am considering a potential claim against you in a medical Malpractice claim in regard to my husband. . . .” I stood, stunned. My white coat, which held the daily tools of my profession — my list of patients, the Sanford antibiotic manual, a black stethoscope — felt extraordinarily heavy.

While my receptionist and staff made themselves busy and waited for my reaction, I struggled to recall the patient, so many patients ago . . . and my alleged misdeed. I checked the administrative data, which showed that the man had died about a year before. Had I missed a lab test among the hundreds that I order each week? Had I failed to read a blood culture report? Had some error of mine resulted in his death?

I generally think of myself as a confident and conscientious practitioner, but my pulse was racing and my palms were moist as I reviewed the patient’s hospital chart that afternoon. He had been a man in his late 60s with a bacterial infection in his lungs. I checked the reports on all the cultures I had ordered: blood, urine, sputum. Then I checked the antibiotics I had prescribed. There was no mismatch; he had been on appropriate treatment. I asked another doctor to double-check me.

Had I been negligent? No.

I was relieved — but still accused. More important, the letter made me reflect on the paradoxes of our medical malpractice system.

Most malpractice suits turn out to be against doctors who were not at fault. Of every 100 malpractice claims filed, only 17 appeared to involve a negligent injury, such as a medication overdose resulting in death, according to a 2004 New England Journal of Medicine review.

This means that patients and lawyers appear to be suing the doctors and hospitals for non-negligent injury 83 percent of the time.

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