High quality care doesn't mean fewer lawsuits

[eridani]

Well, like, duuuuhh! People file lawsuits over bad outcomes, regardless of whether there is actual malpractice. The ONLY reason for this is that people are attempting to access money to pay for the subsequent care that is necessary. It would not happen if everyone were guaranteed health care as a citizenship right.

Don't believe that? How about French general practitioners paying $160/year for malpractice insurance, and specialists paying $650? French patients rarely sue over bad outcomes because any extra necessary care is theirs as a right.

http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/high-quality-care-doesnt-mean-fewer-lawsuits

A new study published on March 31 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the litigation risk of nursing homes is not tied to their quality.

“We were trying to see if lower quality facilities had higher litigation risk than higher quality facilities,” said David Stevenson, an associate professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy and a co-author of the study.

“The Relationship between Quality of Care and Negligence Litigation in Nursing Homes” found that best-performing nursing homes are only slightly less likely to be sued than poor-performing ones.

According to the study, “nursing homes with the best deficiency records (10th percentile) had a 40 percent annual risk of being sued, as compared with a 47 percent risk among nursing homes with the worst deficiency records (90th percentile).”

[drm604]

1. Like with so many other aspects of the health care problem

single payer would go a long way towards solving the problem of malpractice insurance costs.

[drm604]

2. Dupe. Please Ignore.

Stupid board software...

[Rage for Order]

3. American culture seems a bit more litigious than most

Even if relatives knew their family member would get medical care at no cost for as long as needed they would still sue for emotional distress, hoping to hit the jackpot. The fear of being sued seems to be the driving factor behind a large number of policy decisions in both the public and private sectors.

[eridani]

4. Maybe, but have you considered how long that takes?

Not to mention how little is left over after the lawyers get their cut?

[Rage for Order]

5. I have considered it, but most people who sue do not

They hear the personal injury lawyer yelling loudly on the TV commercial about how one of their clients was in a car accident and they got them $105,236 and they think to themselves, "$105,236??? Where's the phone???"



edited to add a dollar sign, because it's all about the Benjamins!

[hifiguy]

6. The fact of the matter is that

the vast majority of the malpractice is committed by a tiny and identifiable percentage of doctors. Doctors' professional organizations and state regulatory agencies that license MDs should be more proactive in pulling the licenses of those doctors.