It's Not Just Healthcare That's Bankrupt--It's Our Legal System, Too

Yes, there is malpractice, but our current system is insane.

“A little legal education is necessary to understand malpractice:For a malpractice suit to be successful, there are five necessary things:

1. A duty to treat – there has to be an established doctor – patient relationship. A typical example would be someone who corners me at a party and asks me what I think is causing their abdominal pain. I give them my card, ask them to make an appointment for a check-up, they never do, and the pain turns out to be fatal cancer – in that case I had no duty to treat.

2. Failure to practice the standard of care – note – this does not mean the BEST care in the world – it means the average, or median standard of care.

3. A physician in the same specialty willing to testify that the doctor practiced below the standard of care – all States require this.

4. Causation – the substandard care has to have caused the patient’s problem – again, this requires expert physician testimony.

5. Damages – if the substandard care causes no damage, there is no basis for a suit.

Now, I ask you – how can 99% of obstetrician gynecologists, neurosurgeons, emergency physicians, neonatologists (pediatricians who take care of premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit), and other high-risk specialists practice worse medicine than average? It’s mathematically impossible.
By the way, in the back of law journals are ads for medical expert companies that promise they will get a doctor to testify to anything the lawyer wants.

Yes, there is malpractice, but our current system is insane.”

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“I want to thank you for creating your book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy. It is rare to find a person with a mind like yours, who can take a holistic systems view of things without being captured by specific perspectives or agendas. Your contribution to humanity is much appreciated.”
Laura Y.
Gordon Long and I discuss The New Nature of Work: Jobs, Occupations & Careers (25 minutes, YouTube)