“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor, or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient” (ABPLA). The problem with medical malpractice involves malpractice claims, unnecessary procedures, the general system, communication issues, and reform efforts. Although medical malpractice is a significant concern, much is being done to address this problem. Many medical practice claims have been made over the years. Around 85,000 claims are made yearly (Berger). The total number of medical malpractice payouts is 12,142 (Gamble, 2013). New York is the highest ranked state for payouts. New York spent $763,088,250 on the payouts alone (Gamble, 2013). The other forty-nine states are significantly below $400,000,000. “Forty percent of medical malpractice claims lack any evidence of either a medical error or patient injury” (Lazarus, 2013). Another major medical malpractice problem is the unnecessary procedures being ordered. The malpractice insurers have recommended women to have yearly mammograms. These mammograms cover the cost of lawsuits for late diagnoses of breast cancer but not the health risks the mammograms present (Avraham, 2011). Fear is also a problem in the malpractice realm. This results in more tests and procedures. Doctors that have been practicing for over five years order more tests to lessen the risk of misdiagnosing and the lawsuits that may come the physician’s way (Marchione, 2011). During the research, Marchione presented this statistic: one fifth of tests bone and joint specialists order are promoted by the fear of being sued (2011). The best care is important to patients. The patient values his doctor prescribing the most effective tests and beneficial … … middle of paper … … to the medical malpractice problem. One way is to have profit companies with expertise in evidence-based medicine to buy or license guidelines from the government. This way the doctors would have immunity from malpractice cases (Avraham, 2011). Rather than public regulators, private regulators would discourage expensive procedures, because of this the doctors would less likely invest in unnecessary procedures that could potentially harm the patients (Avraham, 2011) Furthermore, although medical malpractice is a major problem, much is being done to resolve the issue. Looking through the claims, unnecessary procedures, systems blames, communication problems, and reform efforts, new information is being brought in to correct the issues involved in these areas. Hopefully in the next few years we will continue to see growth in solving this medical malpractice problem.
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