Quote:
Originally Posted by serenityseeker
Funny how concerned you seem to be that there may be fewer PI lawyers around but little mention of the declining physician numbers, nor recognition of the price control issues physicians face that you seem to fear so much for the PI folks.
And again you are wrong. "the only ones taking advantage of anyone is the insurance industry". Again, were this not so blatantly inaccurate it might induce a chuckle.
You are right about medical errors, and it is a multifaceted problem in a complex and high tech system, a little difficult to appreciate when you are not working within it. As I stated earlier, placing more effort and resources in prevention is likely to do more to address the problem than the PI folks you so staunchly defend. I don't expect they are all unscrupulous by any stretch, but experience tells me a very significant number are.
I would easily estimate the numbers of suspensions and revocations is in the thousands annually based on my knowledge of many state medical boards actions of which I am aware of and those I have been involved with peripherally. Is the oversight perfect? Of course not, on either end of the spectrum.Hopefully it will continue to improve.
You may defend those that abuse the system all day, and denigrate those of us struggling to not only exist in it but improve it, by condemning all as a group.. As usual, I would encourage you to do a little more in depth research into the intricacies before making innaccurate judgments, statements, or inferences regarding healthcare providers and the issues they deal with (financial, legal, ethical and otherwise). At least being open and willing to learn would be a great start.
|
Always willing to learn, and am open-minded enough to realize that no profession is comprised solely of saints or sinners.
I would wonder if that "very significant number" of unscrupulous PI attorneys match the number of physicians who subject patients to the inconvenience, discomfort, pain and expense of medical tests which have no purpose other than to provided padded protection for the physician's butt in case one of those "preventable medical errors" occur; or match the number of medical practitioners who make knowing multiple "preventable medical errors" and continue in business. Each profession has its problem children.
As far as the facts are concerned, there always seem to be two types: the ones people want to see, and the ones they don't since they mitigate positions. Whether judgments are inaccurate or not depend on objectivity, and the closer one is personally tied to the matter, the greater the potential for that judgment to be clouded by subjective reasoning.
Why attorneys want to get into the PI business always fascinated me, as the PIers are hated, insulted, joked about, and villified - until someone gets hurt and everyone turns their back on them later. It's one practice area that I've found not worth the aggravation
As far as "staunchly defend," I see it more as balancing the rhetoric. So far, there has been nothing but condemnation of the legal profession while simultaneous sanctification of the poor suffering physician. And as far as preventable medical errors being,"
a multifaceted problem in a complex and high tech system, a little difficult to appreciate when you are not working within it," that's the same song-and-dance given whenever a system refuses to self-correct itself and maintain status quo. Politicians have been doing it for years. Errors/mistakes are noticed, recorded, reviewed, root cause determined, fix formulated and implemented, and results evaluated, and that process works in every other science for failure analysis and correction. When "preventable medical errors" cause fewer deaths than Diabetes and drops one notch to 7th in the "leading causes of deaths in the US," it will be a day of celebration for the public.
There's a lot of education to go around. I've heard a lot about how medical malpractice insurance rates are driving medical professionals into specialties with lower overhead. Yet, the fact that insurance premiums have been rising far out of kilter to claims which have been level for the past six years is treated as insignificant in favor of blaming PI attorneys for everything. Again, the easy target versus who actually is making the money.
Is there concern about rising health care costs? Of course.
Is there effort by everyone which can reduce these costs? Of course.
Will all of the professions "cowboy up" to fix their houses as the first step? We'll see
Is the insurance industry taking a business advantage to all of the hysteria? The numbers speak for themselves.