|
|
|
End the Blame and Shame Game Paul Barringer and Edward Dauer
Modern Healthcare, May 21, 2007 In a recent Modern Healthcare opinion piece, Common Good General Counsel Paul Barringer and Common Good Colorado President Ed Dauer discuss how the current medical liability system undermines patient safety. Notably “the ‘blame and shame’ approach of litigation inhibits learning and the collection of information about errors that would be most useful to avoiding harm in the future.” “Physicians’ justifiable fear of the legal system inhibits open communication about errors, reinforcing a culture of nondisclosure and noncollaboration in efforts at improvement. In all of this, what should be the principal objectives of the law are lost: fair and effective compensation, predictable standards for medical practitioners, accountability for hurtful incompetence, and the wise use of today’s mishap in order to prevent tomorrow’s.” Barringer and Dauer underscore the need for fundamental change, not simply tort reform of the usual kind. The administrative health court model developed by Common Good and researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health is one novel alternative that would be eligible for federal grants under a new bipartisan bill before the U.S. Senate.
Article available only to subscribers.
| |
