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Malpractice: A Medical Crisis It’s Time for Special Health Courts in Pennsylvania
Dr. William W. Lander
Tribune-Democrat, October 14, 2005 An editorial in the Tribune Democrat by Dr. William W. Lander, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, endorses Common Good’s proposal to create special health courts as “one of the most promising solutions” to the failures of our current unreliable medical justice system.
The current system, he writes, “doesn’t provide appropriate or timely compensation to those truly experiencing medical malpractice” and undermines patient safety. For providers, the system’s inconsistency has lead to skyrocketing malpractice premiums that are pushing some doctors out of the field, and causing others to practice defensive medicine, adding cost to an already overburdened health care system.
According to Lander, “[e]stablishing special health courts is a win-win solution, and this may be why the momentum behind it is broad and bipartisan.” “The hallmark of special health courts . . . would be trained judges, selected by a nonpartisan panel for their expertise in health care.” Experts would be neutral – “hired by and accountable to the court” – and not beholden to either the plaintiffs or defendants. “Together, these judges and experts would bring medical training and knowledge that a jury could not.” Under the proposed system, victims would be fully reimbursed for medical costs and economic damages, plus a fixed sum that could be predetermined according to a schedule that distinguishes between types of injuries.
The result: “Special health courts would restore reliability and consistency to the medical justice system. They would fairly compensate victims, weed out patients without valid claims, . . . reduce health-care and litigation costs, and increase openness and candor among health-care professionals,” and ultimately “would protect the doctor-patient relationship.”
Click to read the editorial
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