Wednesday, July 12, 2006

POLITICS - A Better Solution, Medical Liability Reform

"Making Patient Safety the Centerpiece of Medical Liability Reform" by Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama, New England Journal of Medicine

We have visited doctors and hospitals throughout the country and heard firsthand from those who face ever-escalating insurance costs. Indeed, in some specialties, high premiums are forcing physicians to give up performing certain high-risk procedures, leaving patients without access to a full range of medical services. But we have also talked with families who have experienced errors in their care, and it has become clear to us that if we are to find a fair and equitable solution to this complex problem, all parties — physicians, hospitals, insurers, and patients — must work together. Instead of focusing on the few areas of intense disagreement, such as the possibility of mandating caps on the financial damages awarded to patients, we believe that the discussion should center on a more fundamental issue: the need to improve patient safety.

We all know the statistic from the landmark 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report that as many as 98,000 deaths in the United States each year result from medical errors.1 But the IOM also found that more than 90 percent of these deaths are the result of failed systems and procedures, not the negligence of physicians. Given this finding, we need to shift our response from placing blame on individual providers or health care organizations to developing systems for improving the quality of our patient-safety practices.2


These are just the opening paragraphs of the article. It includes provisions from the "National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation (MEDiC) Bill" proposal.

I highly suggest reading the full article. This is a better solution than the GOP's cap-the-money proposals.

The GOP's problem, since they worship money (aka Greed), they are incapable of coming up with any solutions outside the context of money.

No comments: