You thought your doctors were idiots...

**triggerhappy2005** · 01-27-10, 04:37 AM

Doctor's nationwide paid 11 billion in malpractice insurance premiums last year. What the insurance companies paid out in court awards is irrelevant as that is on them. 11 billion in relation to the amount spent on health care in this country is trivial. Unfortunately this is used to change the discussion about what is really needed to improve the health care problem.

**Rawr** · 01-27-10, 06:49 AM

In the case I mentioned the insurance company found it easier to settle out of court, but I believe it was after some of the court proceedings were held. It's been a few years and I may not be able to find the whole article. Either way the woman made out like a bandit, and even though the dentist did not lose her license, her practice died due to the fact that it was all over the news that someone died in her chair, when it was in no way her fault. So there was no way to bring it to a higher court.

I could have been wrong and it may have just settled before it went to court, but I'm pretty sure it went. Either way, it's still bogus to have even gotten anything out of this. Malpractice lawsuits are definitely still a problem, albeit not the only one. (although this is just a problem with frivolous lawsuits in general, ie burn self with coffee, make millions - yes mcdonalds coffee is hot, but it's fucking coffee)

**RagunCajun** · 01-27-10, 08:33 AM

Kind of funny to think about really...

In an effort to assure the patient that the doctor will not cut off the wrong leg, the nurse marks an "X" on the good leg saying "there, the doctor will see that and know not to cut that leg off", and so soothed, the patient is sedated and rolled into the operating room.

The doctor, who has never seen this patient before, looks at the "X" and assumes "X" marks the spot for the cut, and promptly removes the limb.

This is not what happened in this case, but is rather my illustration of how a failure to communicate caused a systemic failure, and now an old woman is suffering as a result.

**Alundil** · 01-27-10, 08:55 AM

Being in the healthcare industry, this a constant fear and we've done about as much as we can from the IT side of the house to ensure that the folks have the requisite prompts and times to verify patient, procedure and site. However, sadly it still happens from time to time. Guess it is kinda hard to get over the "human error" factor. There is no good way to code around that.