Those of us who work with doctors and patients, and have children and grandchildren, know that positive reinforcement is more effective than punishment. To improve medicine, we must re-invigorate the placebo effect (read, e.g., Norman Cousins' old but wonderful "Anatomy of an Illness"), which is responsible for 50% or so of all healing; its effectuation relies upon a good relationship between doctor and patient. Further, we must help doctors to strive to be better every day of their working lives; and we must help patients understand that the 20% who are diabetic or becoming diabetic; the 20% who take illegal drugs or prescription drugs; the 35-45% who are obese; the 26% who smoke, have created for themselves an environment in which health measures, surgery and useful medication are less efficacious. There is much to be done. Punishment does not work well; training, encouragement, awareness & integrity are the better path.

Mr. Rosov:

Your post missed the point. There is no desire on behalf of injured patients to "punish" a doctor. Rather, the civil justice system seeks to compensate injured patients for the losses they suffered as a result of a doctor's negligence. It is only when a physician in the same practice area testifies that a doctor's conduct fell below the accepted standard of care that compensatory damages may be awarded. Punishment, or punitive damages, are very rare and are awarded only if it is determined that a defendant acted purposefully to cause injure, or with reckless disregard for patient safety. Certainly, I can agree that many patients have pre-existing conditions which make health measures less efficacious. However, that in no way explains or justifies substandard care such as misdiagnosis of cancer and other serious and life threatening illnesses; mal-treatment of new born babies resulting in life long brain injury and disability; or the tens of thousands of other preventable injuries and death that occur every year in this country as a result of medical negligence. The problem is not a malpractice insurance crisis; nor is it a lawsuit crisis. The real crisis is the degree of malpractice itself.

Wow I do not know where to start...This response is not meant to be pejorative but you will see the words obfuscate and disingenuous mentioned. "The Truth about....." this title alone is highly suspect. Lies, dam lies and statistics try Googling malpractice 12,800,000 hits! A very wise man once told me "whenever an attorney states something to be true take an equal but totally opposing position", he stated further " I guarantee that position exists in the legal world somewhere"

Statistics are used by those that never "did", anecdotal evidence when found in large numbers is always far more accurate.
First and most important Mr. Rosov is perhaps the only man in America who gets "it", Mr. Rosov has spent his entire life fighting for issues that better society and with little personal financial reward. He has not missed the point, he certainly does not miss the point that only attorneys benefit from the civil justice system, most cases are won by the defense, perhaps an arbitration system would distribute money more fairly, perhaps an arbitration system would be less costly, monies would be paid in greater proportion to the injured party and in a more resolute fashion not the 5 years it takes in Bergen County.

The justice system does not provide any form of risk management or create a culture of safety. In fact quite the opposite is true, a carrier's policy of insurance forbids speaking to the injured party, peer review is hindered by fear of a law suit. Non party nurses and doctors will never point out a wrong out of fear. There is no credible evidence malpractice cases prevent malpractice.
Anecdotal evidence suggests most cases are presented based on injury and through obfuscation and theatrics attorneys occasionally "hit" for big numbers. The real damage takes place long before the trial in the form of settlements, and to a large degree cases of no negligence or deviation. It is the fear of a verdict in excess of the policy which forces carriers to settle otherwise defensible cases. Remove Rova and allow cases to go to trial.

Now for the disingenuous statement, 80,000 death cases. Is the person responsible for this post telling us there are no attorneys willing to champion the cause of so many estates of these deceased victims of malpractice. Is that what is being said, he must be ashamed of his colleagues. There are only 2 reasons attorneys have not accepted these cases

The reality is those 80,000 cases are most likely an exaggerated number but assume they are legitimate first the amount of potential income does not warrant the time of the attorney or more likely errors occurred not malpractice.

Now let us suppose for a moment Mr. Rosov is correct, the jury system has resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in waste. Would not society of been light years ahead in terms of disease fighting had that money been spent on research. Would feeding the poor of the world been a better then the ordering of tens of thousands of MRI, EKG's, and other very expensive testing. Not to mention all the c-sections.

You see you can't have it both ways don't tell me there is so much malpractice taking place based on extrapolated data and with a straight face tell me there are not attorneys willing to take those 80,000 death cases. Here is a real number I handled 130 death cases per year and paid on 35% hardly the 2000 claimed by ATLA during the height of the "crisis". The real crisis might be malpractice it is not manifested in the legal system!

Finally Thomas Jefferson said and I paraphrase ...never seek your honor through an attorney but do it in the stealth of night"

hellooooooooo out there in the world of malpractice truth what say yea