Medical Professional Liability and the Delivery of Obstetrical Care Volume II, An Interdisciplinary Review (1989) / Chapter Skim
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Medical Professional Liability and the Relations between Doctors and Their Patients
Medical Professional Liability and the Relations between Doctors and Their Patients
Pages 97-103
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From page 97... ...
In any case, they often manage to escape detection and disciplining by peer review state licensing bodies, at least for a long time, and they probably account for a large share of malpractice actions. A variant of this problem is the otherwise competent physician who is doing something for which he or she has not been adequately trained and who therefore performs ineptly.
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From page 98... ...
The Tort System A second explanation for the rising tide of malpractice actions is to be found in the perverse incentives inherent in the present tort system. The contingency fee arrangement encourages patients to take legal action.
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From page 99... ...
But when medical care becomes primarily a commercial transaction and patients are treated as customers, the climate changes. As customers, patients are more inclined to demand total satisfaction and to seek legal redress when the results of their medical care are disappointing.
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From page 100... ...
It is for this reason that the malpractice premium rates for specialists, who perform technical procedures, are higher than for general physicians, who primarily offer counsel and relatively simple office procedures.
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From page 101... ...
little choice but to sign a consent form. In addition, although informed consent documents are routinely used for surgical and invasive diagnostic procedures, it is impractical to use them for all of the vast array of diagnostic and nonsurgical therapeutic procedures employed in the everyday practice of ambulatory and inpatient medicine.
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From page 102... ...
This practice, of course, increases the cost and risk of medical care. In obstetrics, the growing and probably excessive—use of fetal monitoring and cesarean sections undoubtedly stems in part from this fear of the legal action that might result should the pregnancy yield anything less than a perfect baby.
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From page 103... ...
On far too many occasions ~ have seen physicians act simply as technicians, providing the medical services patients seek but not the counsel and support they also need. ~ believe this abdication of professional responsibility reflects many currents in our culture, but surely one of its major causes is the growing wariness many physicians fee]
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