AND THE SHIT KEEPS ROLLING IN
This malpractice site ran by a New Orleans law firm actually listed an article in a blog entitled "Doctors Have the Upper Hand At Trial". Yes, we do have an upper hand at trial mainly because if we actually take the time and effort to go to trial, most cases that go that far are bullshit in the first place and pressured there by you social vultures.
What they so delicately forgot to mention was that most malpractice lawsuits don't even go to trial in the first place. Insurance companies would much rather settle out of court for a lesser amount than it would take to go to trial and support the doctor - hence potentially lose more. So, if a doctor wants to actually prove he/she did nothing wrong, that doctor has to pay for it all themselves.
Trial attourneys love to encourage paitients to file suit simply becasue the suit will likely be settled out of court by the insurance companies and lawyers. So, the patients are happy, the lawyers really happy, and the doctor is pissed off because most of the time he/she never did anything wrong in the first place. Really makes you wonder - if most suits that actually go to trial are ruled in favor of the physician, who do you think is right in all those settlements that don't go to trial?
Doctors are so sick of lawsuits, and why wouldn't we be? We do our jobs, usually extremely well, and when some patient has a bad outcome, they immediately think it was the doctor's fault. (Ignorance is bliss.) Wake up! Medicine is not perfect (and never will be), doctors are not perfect, and patients have a good tendency of making a hard job even harder. Now the patient is upset and what happens, they see some advertisement on the TV for some random personal injury lawyer (aka social vulture). The patient calls and the lawyer proceeds to have a great day because usually, if there is any sort of sad outcome, they know that the case will never go to trial and instead be settled out of court for some "undisclosed amount". Well, a good percentage of that amount goes to the lawyers - those nice folks out to serve in the best interest of their clients.
Give me a break. Any personal injury lawyer who says they went into practice to truly help people is so full of it, they reek of it. I'm trying to help people when the need it most, while the vultures fly in and try to feed off the dead. Feed away boys, at least my children can be proud of what I do.
What they so delicately forgot to mention was that most malpractice lawsuits don't even go to trial in the first place. Insurance companies would much rather settle out of court for a lesser amount than it would take to go to trial and support the doctor - hence potentially lose more. So, if a doctor wants to actually prove he/she did nothing wrong, that doctor has to pay for it all themselves.
Trial attourneys love to encourage paitients to file suit simply becasue the suit will likely be settled out of court by the insurance companies and lawyers. So, the patients are happy, the lawyers really happy, and the doctor is pissed off because most of the time he/she never did anything wrong in the first place. Really makes you wonder - if most suits that actually go to trial are ruled in favor of the physician, who do you think is right in all those settlements that don't go to trial?
Doctors are so sick of lawsuits, and why wouldn't we be? We do our jobs, usually extremely well, and when some patient has a bad outcome, they immediately think it was the doctor's fault. (Ignorance is bliss.) Wake up! Medicine is not perfect (and never will be), doctors are not perfect, and patients have a good tendency of making a hard job even harder. Now the patient is upset and what happens, they see some advertisement on the TV for some random personal injury lawyer (aka social vulture). The patient calls and the lawyer proceeds to have a great day because usually, if there is any sort of sad outcome, they know that the case will never go to trial and instead be settled out of court for some "undisclosed amount". Well, a good percentage of that amount goes to the lawyers - those nice folks out to serve in the best interest of their clients.
Give me a break. Any personal injury lawyer who says they went into practice to truly help people is so full of it, they reek of it. I'm trying to help people when the need it most, while the vultures fly in and try to feed off the dead. Feed away boys, at least my children can be proud of what I do.
posted by Caduceus at Tuesday, August 08, 2006
7 Comments:
So it's all the lawyers' fault then? Nothing to do with the allopathic fundamentalism of modern medicine?
I can tell from your site and your rambling conversation that if you came into my ED, all I would need for you is a psych eval.
Using big words and philosophic speech is not impressive unless you do it well...yours is just pathetic.
And by the way, you spelled yogurt wrong in your profile...unless you are trying to be artistic. If so, I think your really smart.
Sick of lawsuits? Really?!?
The correct statement is that physicians are sick of lawsuits in which they are the defendants. They are certainly not sick of the typical run of the mill PI bullshit lawsuit in which they bed the same ATLA spawn that they so bitterly complain about when it comes to the med-mal world. Physicians are more than happy to prostitute themselves for the trial lawyers when it comes to making a buck by sueing some poor sap third party or suing a drug company or [insert a deeper pocket than the physician here].
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
As for the prior comment, I only have a few thoughts...
1. Some lawsuits are valid, and if so, doctors testifying against their colleagues in support of patients, exemplifies professionalism within our field.
2. For those lawsuits that are the "run of the mill PI bullshit" you speak of, there will always be some idiot doctor that would rather sell his soul to make a buck rather than support what they know to be right.
3. Lastly, you said "physicians are more than happy to prostitute themselves for the trial lawyers". These physicians you speak of; they're looked down upon in our profession. But one thing is certain, the prostitute is just as amoral as the pimp.
I respect your thougths though.
Ever diagnosed a "post-traumatic" cervical strain/sprain following MVA from in a walk-in litigant based solely on their claimed history? If the answer is yes, then you have most likely participated in the junk science PI system. The paradigm of relying on the litigant to provide an accurate, unbiased and correct history is laughable on its face and yet, it is the hallmark of "clinical causation." Would you rely on the word of the same litigant, in the same manner, if they claimed an iatragenic injury at your hands?
Just remember - 'money is the root of all evil' - that goes for the trial bar and physicians with PI in junk science (or whore physicians that will testify in a medmal case when community standard of care is met) ... we all suffer. Only when (or now I wonder if the appropriate word is IF) the public wakes up will medicine and it's availablity to the public which it serves can fully survive.
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