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More than 80 Prominent Leaders Endorse Special Health Courts February 7, 2005 More than 80 of the nation's most prominent leaders in healthcare and law have endorsed the creation of special health courts as a way of restoring reliability to medical justice. Health courts would establish judges dedicated full-time to resolving healthcare disputes. Judges in special health courts would make written rulings in every case to provide guidance on proper standards of care. Their rulings would set precedents on which both patients and doctors could rely.
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The 86 leaders supporting health courts include:
- 10 university presidents;
- 11 deans of medical schools or schools of public health;
- 10 former high-ranking government officials, including four former U.S. Senators, two former Governors, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, a former U.S. Attorney General, a former Deputy U.S. Attorney General, and a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and
- 6 current or former heads of healthcare policy, healthcare quality or patient safety organizations.
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"American healthcare is in meltdown, in part because medical justice has become random," said Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good.
"That's why these leading healthcare experts are supporting the creation of special health courts to restore reliability for patients and doctors alike. We have special courts for tax disputes. Isn't healthcare at least as important?" |
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What Health Court Supporters Are Saying:
"When patients are injured through medical error, healthcare providers have an obligation to respond--not only with improved medical care but also with equitable compensation," said William L. Roper, MD, MPH, Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Healthcare courts are needed to provide fair resolution to both patients and healthcare providers."
"The current legal system presents real barriers to improving the quality of American healthcare," said Margaret E. O'Kane, President, National Committee for Quality Assurance. "A special health court could provide powerful incentives for honest reporting and analysis of errors, and to elevate standards of care."
"Real improvements in patient safety, as well as basic fairness, require reliable and timely decisions by expert courts," said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.
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