They claim to have value, but at what cost?

After reading what I have to say, some self-serving and ill-informed people will complain. They'll say things like:

• "...not every malpractice attorney is like that."
  
• "Some doctors need to be punished."
• "Who else is going to stick up for the poor victims of the small minority of greedy, negligent, or incompetent doctors?"
• "The economic impact of "defensive medicine" is inconsequential."
• "See, another whiney doctor complaining about getting sued. He probably is kind of doctor who needs us to keep him in line."
• "The victims of bad medical care deserve justice."
• "It's not illegal. Screw yourself."
• "It doesn't matter, doctors are rich. They can afford to pay."
• "Somebody owes me for my pain and suffering.
  

Not only are these rebuttals wrong, but they are also offered in bad faith. They are distractions from my key point; The whole idea and the existence of medical malpractice is toxic to the soul of healthcare. I am not going to attempt to refute every clever and manipulative ambulance chaser's canned rebuttal here, but I will underscore a few key points: 

• When doctors are trained, conditioned, and learn to imagine every patient and every other doctor as a potential threat to his livelihood and calling, we have a big problem in healthcare.
• When skill, caring, and justice have very little to do with how a doctor is judged, we have a big problem in healthcare.
• When doctors avoid patients in direct proportion to how sick they are, we have a big problem in healthcare. 
• When medicine is driven not just by money, but infused with fear of the voracious legal parasites who are combing the obituaries for the chance to sue somebody, anybody, for any reason, we have a problem deep in the heart of medicine.
• If there is no justice for one person, there is no justice for anyone. This is especially true in healthcare where trust and faith are vital.

We will come back to the last point again and again, from many angles angle in Volume II and III of The Heart of a Doctor book series. 

 Stay tuned. 

Copyright. 2020. Jason M. Fish MD FAAFP