Malpractice in radiation oncology: redefining the role of the medical expert. PMID: 15990032

摘要

Skyrocketing malpractice insurance, early retirement of demoralized physicians, and the lack of college students choosing.to go to medical school are partly or completely the result of the current state of medical malpractice. By the time malpractice depositions are under way, the damage is irreversible and can only get worse over the ensuing months. At the deposition stage, there are already too many factors preventing any easy solution. We should look at the beginning, when control is in our hands, the hands of the medical expert.When lawyers discuss medical malpractice, it is often in regard to solving the problems of the end-stage event, "caps" for monetary awards, requiring the loser to pay court costs, and solving other problems that occur at the end of the malpractice .process. Phasing in a mediation process after the "battle" has progressed and the ill will, which may have been created by the depositions, has already been established also provides little deterrent to the malpractice process. Physicians often blame lawyers for the chaos and crises resulting from malpractice litigation, when in fact physicians themselves, particularly the designated "expert witnesses," are often equally to blame when things get messy.