Thursday, September 10, 2009

The medical malpractice myth. - By Ezra Klein - Slate Magazine

The medical malpractice myth. - By Ezra Klein - Slate Magazine

From 2006 - pretty comprehensive look at the issue. Turns out that runaway juries are not the problem. Doctors behaving badly are.

Total cost of legal fees, insurance costs & awards estimated to be less than 0.5% of health care spending.

Harvard study suggests that about 4% of all patients are injured by doctor/nurse/hospital negligence. One out of twenty-five. More likely to happen than rolling snake eyes at the craps table.

Another Harvard study suggests that more than 90% of claims showed in the record evidence of medical injury.

Only 6 out of several thousand cases resulted in an award and which didn't appear to conclusively show medical injury.