Clinton and Obama..better way to reduce medical malpractice suits...

[SaveElmer]

Instead of going after those trying to recoup their lives after the malpractice as Republicans want to do through award caps and so-called tort reform...how about reducing the incidence of malpractice in the first place...

Of course "Dr." Frist won't like this as there is no enemy to demonize an no ignorant constituency to pander too!!

http://www.slate.com/id/2145400/?nav=tap3

The Republican answer to runaway health-care spending is to cap jury awards in medical malpractice suits. For the fifth time in four years, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried and failed to cap awards at $250,000 during his self-proclaimed "Health Care Week" in May. But this time, the Democrats put a better idea on the table.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also want to save on health care. But rather than capping jury awards, they hope to cut the number of medical malpractice cases by reducing medical errors, as they explain in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. In other words, to the Republicans, suits and payouts are the ill. To the Democrats, the problem is a slew of medical injuries of which the suits are a symptom. The latest evidence shows the Democrats' diagnosis to be right.

[drm604]

1. K&R

So obvious, yet no one seems to see it.

[GeorgeGist]

2. And destroy the Medical Malpractice Myth

from the Slate article;

"The best attempt to synthesize the academic literature on medical malpractice is Tom Baker's The Medical Malpractice Myth, published last November. Baker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut who studies insurance, argues that the hype about medical malpractice suits is "urban legend mixed with the occasional true story, supported by selective references to academic studies." After all, including legal fees, insurance costs, and payouts, the cost of the suits comes to less than one-half of 1 percent of health-care spending. If anything, there are fewer lawsuits than would be expected, and far more injuries than we usually imagine."

[underpants]

4. Great resource-Americans for insurance reform

http://insurance-reform.org/

[azurnoir]

3. Protect the big guy

at the expense of others, thats the Ameri.....GOP way. The Dems have it right, reduce errors.
One of the ways that medical errors could be reduced pronto is to change the way md's are trained.That is when they get to the residency part of training (after graduating med school) they go into a sort of intense OJT. The part that is done in hospitals is grueling they are "on call" for up to 48 or 72 hours at a time, meaning they sleep between cases. If short staffed or a weekend they can be without sleep for a couple days, not best prospective to make decisions from. I have asked doctors why do this at no point in their career will this be expected of them again, no one has been able to give a good answer, it's just the way the system works. Changing this IMHO would reduce medical errors greatly. Note I am not saying that they are bad doctors they are being put in a situation that is horrible.