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Philip K. Howard Comments on New Yorker Article, "The Malpractice Mess" The New Yorker, December 26, 2005 Commenting on Atul Gawande’s recent New Yorker article, “The Malpractice Mess,” the following letter by Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard was printed in the December 26th edition of the magazine:
Atul Gawande impressively chronicles how our current system of justice—slow, expensive, and unreliable—fails both doctors and patients (“The Malpractice Mess,” November 14th). The solution may lie in America’s long tradition of special courts, which began in 1789 with separate admiralty courts. There are now bankruptcy courts, tax courts, workers’-compensation tribunals, and, as Gawande notes, vaccine-liability courts. These courts were all established to provide reliable justice in areas of particular complexity. Special health courts, in which judges are dedicated to resolving health-care disputes, could set precedents and provide guidance on proper standards of care. Currently, several leading hospitals, including New York-Presbyterian and Johns Hopkins, have expressed interest in being pilot projects for such courts, and Congress is planning hearings early next year.
Philip K. Howard
Chair, Common Good
New York City
Read more about "The Malpractice Mess."
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