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Navigating Malpractice Laws: Enhancing Patient Care and Justice in Health System

Explore the strengths and shortcomings of the medical malpractice system, its impact on patient care quality, and the controversies surrounding legal and ethical issues in American healthcare. Understand the goals of the legal system in compensating injured patients, deterring undesirable conduct, and ensuring fairness. Delve into the process of filing complaints, trials, appeals, and potential reforms to improve the current system. Evaluate defensive medicine practices and proposed alternatives like health courts or enterprise liability. Examine the challenges and impediments to implementing changes in the legal framework.

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Navigating Malpractice Laws: Enhancing Patient Care and Justice in Health System

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  1. Current Legal and Ethical Controversies in American Health Care Strengths and Shortcomings of the Medical Malpractice System

  2. Goals of the Legal System Regarding Patients and Their Medical Care? • Compensate [some] injured patients • Improve quality of care, by deterring (punishing) undesirable conduct • Efficiency • Sensitivity • Specificity • Does system “overdeter” physicians to overtreat or undertreat patients? Defensive medicine? • Fairness

  3. The Current Malpractice System • Based on individual civil lawsuits for $$ damages • Main theory is Negligence. Elements: • Duty of due care owed, based on a relationship • Unintentional breach/violation of duty • Causation • Damage/Injury

  4. Process • Complaint filed • Answer to the complaint • Discovery process • Written interrogatories, with document requests • Request for admissions • Depositions • Settlement attempts

  5. Trial • Post-trial motions • Appeal(s)

  6. Supplements to the Current System • Criminal prosecutions • Professional discipline apparatus

  7. Defensive Medicine • Good defensive medicine • Bad defensive medicine • Assurance behavior • Avoidance behavior

  8. “Reforms”/Alternatives • Tinkering • Damage caps • Shorter statutes of limitations • Affidavit requirement • Limits on who can be an expert witness • Limits on attorneys’ fees • Early offer plans

  9. “Reforms”/Alternatives (cont.) • More radical • Health courts • Enterprise liability • Administrative compensation system (like Workers’ Compensation) • Florida NICA system • Better first party insurance • Social • Private

  10. Impediments to Change • Political • Economic • Legal • Federalist system—50+ different jurisdictions • Constitutional right to a jury trial • Equal Protection

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