22
Jul 09What consequences?
At first glance, this is a pretty heartwarming story–it turns out that if doctors are nice to their patients and act like decent, responsible human beings, patients are less angry when their doctors screw up! They might not even sue!
At the University of Michigan Health System, … lawyers and doctors say admitting mistakes up front and offering compensation before being sued have brought about remarkable savings in money, time and feelings.
[...]
“What we are doing is common decency,” said Richard Boothman, a veteran malpractice defense lawyer and chief risk officer for a health system with 18,000 employees and a $1.5 billion annual budget.
Okay, so it’s not entirely altruistic:
The willingness to admit mistakes goes well beyond decency and has proven a shrewd business strategy… According to Boothman, malpractice claims against his health system fell from 121 in 2001 to 61 in 2006, while the backlog of open claims went from 262 in 2001 to 106 in 2006 and 83 in 2007.
And of course, there are the detractors.
For “saying sorry” to work, doctors need protection from having their own honesty used against them in court, said Jim Copland, director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy and an advocate of curbs on damage suits. … “If you go out and say, ‘Oh, we messed up,’ are you going to lose the lawsuit? You need to give them some protection,” Copland said.
Ah cynicism, I missed you so. Look, I understand the desire to protect doctors from frivolous lawsuits, and I realize that the boundaries there can be pretty vague. I even think his concern is perfectly rational, as long as your scope remains “winning individual lawsuits.” But the UM doctors aren’t saying “Oh man, my bad–my bad, yo! We cool?” They’re “offering compensation”–settling possible cases before they go to court. In that situation, a sincere (or sincere-sounding) apology and a patient’s belief in her doctor’s good faith go a long way to avoiding a suit in the first place.
Tagged: health, news, wtf o'clock