When someone goes to be treated by a medical professional or they go to the hospital, that patient expects an acceptable standard of care to be observed. When this standard isn’t observed — when the care they receive is substandard and, thus, entering “medical malpractice” territory — it is likely that the individual will have some sort of negative medical experience, typically ending with a medical error or mistake that changes their life.
This is when medical malpractice lawsuits come into play. The purpose is to help the victimized patient with some compensation that allows them to pay for bills and rehabilitation associated with the incident. But what effect do these medical malpractice lawsuits have on the medical field?
Well one professional involved with the medical field says there are two practical effects of medical malpractice on the medical industry.
The first is that medical professionals believe they are much more likely to get sued than they actually are. Of all physicians, there are roughly 7.4 percent of them that are facing a medical malpractice claim within a year. But physicians also believe there is a 20 percent chance they will be sued in a given year. Their perception is far greater than reality, and that fear leads directly to the second effect of medical malpractice on the medical field: defensive medicine.
Defensive medicine is the act of ordering many tests and procedures — often superfluous or unnecessary ones — to eliminate potential conditions or medical issues that a patient may be dealing with. All of this costs time and money, and though it may yield some information to the medical professional, it doesn’t yield much. Defensive medicine is problematic, as it basically passes the cost of medical malpractice lawsuits (real ones or perceived ones) down to the patients.
Source: WRVO, “How the threat of medical malpractice has changed the way medicine is practiced,” April 17, 2015
