Ways to Reduce Medical Malpractice Costs

Medical malpractice has been an ongoing topic among lawmakers and medical professionals.  The abundance of lawsuits in addition to increases in malpractice insurance has created a huge financial burden for medical professionals.  In addition to that, there's the suffering of patients who are victims of malpractice. 

With increases in premiums for medical malpractice insurance in some areas of the United States, the medical community as well as business groups are urging lawmakers to take action now to reform medical malpractice laws and reduce malpractice costs.

Among the medical community, there have been quite a few ideas that have come about to reduce malpractice costs.  These preventative measures, if followed consistently, will save a great deal of time and reduce litigation.

• Improve safety performance - Professionals in the medical field should put more focus on improving safety performance in health care settings.  Find out what is causing the most claims and work together to establish standards to improve in those areas.  Medical professionals should also be required to study medical malpractice prevention as part of their licensing.
  

• Focus on doctors with a history of medical malpractice - Doctors who have a history of malpractice are the ones causing the most problems. The focus should be on taking away their licenses until they can prove that their worthy of practicing medicine again.
  

• Encourage doctors to communicate with patients - If something happens that was unexpected or a mistake was made, doctors should be open and honest with their patients.  People who trust their doctor are less likely to file a lawsuit.

• Create courts of law that specialize in medical malpractice suits - There have been bills introduced to Congress that would allow these types of courts to be set up.  Litigation will no longer be passed from judge to judge and there would be greater consistency in decision-making.

While reforming medical malpractice laws may temporarily help reduce malpractice costs, it’s important to get to the root of the problem, and that is for medical professionals to reduce preventable medical errors and focus on taking care of their patients.  It’s been shown that when doctors are sincere, honest, and transparent, they are less likely to be sued for medical malpractice. Regardless if medical malpractice laws are changed, it’s important for the medical community to take notice and make changes on a local level and even personal level.