Forget tort reform -- Democrats have a better diagnosis.
Ezra Klein explains that the problem isn't angry lawyers -- the problem is sloppy doctors. And now Sens. Clinton and Obama have offered a solution.
First, some facts:
Anesthesiologists used to get hit with the most malpractice lawsuits and some of the highest insurance premiums. Then in the late 1980s, the American Society of Anesthesiologists launched a project to analyze every claim ever brought against its members and develop new ways to reduce medical error. By 2002, the specialty had one of the highest safety ratings in the profession, and its average insurance premium plummeted to its 1985 level, bucking nationwide trends.Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Clinton and Obama want to make patient safety the centerpiece of medical liability reform.Similarly, feeling embattled by a high rate of malpractice claims, the University of Michigan Medical System in 2002 analyzed all adverse claims and used the data to restructure procedures to guard against error. Since instituting the program, the number of suits has dropped by half, and the university's annual spending on malpractice litigation is down two-thirds.
And at the Lexington, Ky., Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a program of early disclosure and settlement of malpractice claims lowered average settlement costs to $15,000, compared with $83,000 for other VA hospitals.
Patient safety! What a concept.
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Categories: Democrats
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Some how, when I make this argument, people sense some kind of disingenuiousness.
Go figure.
Posted by: Mark Adams![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.rubyan.com/politics/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 12, 2006 04:35 PM
Q: What's the difference God and a doctor?
A: God doesn't think he's a doctor.
Posted by: Ara Rubyan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.rubyan.com/politics/nav-commenters.gif)
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July 12, 2006 06:13 PM