And loses the subsequent lawsuit. I’m thinking this must have been a nurse practitioner working in a GYN’s office. Here’s hoping she has good malpractice insurance. A physician comments on the chilling effects of the verdict:
$2,450,000 is approximately the life savings of a general practice MD after tax and life’s expenses.As a Greenville county physician the prospect of losing an entire life’s savings for one mistake is very discouraging. It causes a few undesirable behaviors on the part of myself and my peers.
1. We spend an excessive amount of money ordering tests, radiology procedures, surgical procedures, and even hospitalization in order to prevent such a lawsuit. The cost of such “defensive medicine” is enourmous and cannot be calculated because all of the waste “looks good on paper” -meaning the appropriate indication for all of the above is documented in the medical record, not by lying, but by representing the truth in a way that will justify the tests.
2. I do not volunteer my talent at any charity clinic becuase I am not willing to take this risk.
3. In a time when my specialty is in high demand, the risk of such a loss encourages me to retire early, despite the need for my work in this community.
(via Ted Frank)
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- The choice between malpractice and insurance fraud
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- Spotted on an Israeli medical student . . .
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{ 5 comments }
The self-importance of point (3) is rather galling. There should be zero mistakes by anyone and everyone involved with such a self-important fellow solely as a result of basking in his divine glow.
The story is very brief, but what is said hardly seems enough to support a verdict like this. RMSF does not result from every tick bite, even those with fever and rashes that follow. Serologic testing takes quite awhile, longer than the three days from office presentation to ER visit that the article relates. And in the absence of an ongoing rash, something in evidence at the time of the office visit, it would be even less likely a diagnosis. The patient related flu-like symptoms, which are extremely common. The outcome is tragic, but given the fulminant events, organ failure, probable generalized DIC picture with necrosis of extremities, it is really debatable whether standard treatment for RMSF would necessarily have affected the outcome. For those who think immediate referral would have been better, wonder to whom. I doubt an infectious diseases specialist would be all that impressed by the history to have ordered immediate admission.
It would be interesting to know whether this award stands. If it does, it creates a very strong incentive to test heavily and early and refer even the most trivial problems.
I do wonder, as one commenter in the link said, why she went to an OB/GYN and why the OB/GYN didn’t pass the case along/call someone for advice.
I wonder why this would be so “chilling” when one could simply buy insurance to cover this sort of thing. Do doctors avoid driving if they read about a car wreck that resulted in someone being rendered paraplegic and getting a multimillion dollar verdict? Must not be, the parking lots for physicians are usually full with massive SUVs, which are even more likely to cause significant harm to the person on the other end of the wreck.
What are the “life’s expenses” that are deducted from the savings figure?
Sounds like yet another whiny doctor wanting immunity from the harm they cause.
” wonder why this would be so “chilling” when one could simply buy insurance to cover this sort of thing”
Do you spend 1/3rd of your income on car insurance (I know quite a lot OBGYs for malpractice). My dear ,hardly you would ever drive a car.
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