Why We Have Malpractice Suits

The Hippocratic Oath is often thought to mean "First do no harm," but it really says, "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."  The Oath really suggests that doctors try to avoid harm to the best of their judgment.  Some harm is an inevitable side effect of diagnosis and treatment because of random side effects that can be lethal.  Doctors and patients accept some risk in the hope of gaining bigger benefits because some risk is unpreventable.   

But preventable medical errors are also a serious problem.  Generally speaking, preventable errors are the kind of stupid mistakes that are caused by distracted medical professionals who do something that they consciously know is wrong like removing the left kidney instead of the right kidney.
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Nikki White Died of Treatable Lupus

Frontline:  Watch beginning at 34 minutes until 40 minutes.  You might be required to watch a short commercial first.  The rest of the episode is also good, but just watch the 6 minutes about Nikki White. 

Supplier Induced Demand??

Report on health care from the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

These  large  differences  in  spending  suggest  that  nearly  30  percent  of  Medicare’s  costs could be saved without adverse health consequences. 34   If these patterns are consistent with the experience  of  other  populations,  such  as  Medicaid  enrollees  and  the  privately  insured,  then  it should  be  possible  to  cut  total  health  expenditures  by  about  30  percent  without  worsening outcomes.  Since we currently spend approximately 18 percent of our GDP on health care, a 30 percent reduction in expenditures would again suggest that savings on the order of 5 percent of GDP could be feasible.