Posted by Bill Sandweg on 21 August 2017.
Medical care is shrouded in secrecy. While most doctors are good, competent, caring people, there are some who are incompetent and whose incompetence harms patients. Who are these doctors? Many in the medical profession know who the incompetents are but no one tells the public. No one tells the patient when there has been a medical mistake made. Instead, the patient is left to wonder if the bad outcome was, as suggested, just one of those things or if it was medical malpractice. Sometimes, a word is whispered in an elevator or hallway suggesting to the patient that he or she should see a lawyer. Why must it be this way? Why won’t doctors be honest with their patients when they have made a mistake which has injured the patient? Why do they sometimes deliberately mislead their patients about what happened? Why do those around the doctor who know a terrible mistake has been made permit the doctor to get away with it? Why do those in the medical profession who know another doctor is incompetent or has a substance abuse problem keep that information hidden not only from the public but also from the medical board?
We have been brought up to believe that we should learn from our mistakes. How do we learn, if we never admit we made a mistake in the first place? How do we learn, if we not only don’t admit to a mistake but deny we made one? How do others learn from our mistakes, if we hide those mistakes? Every settlement agreement I have ever been asked to sign after settling a malpractice case contains a clause upon which the defendant doctor or hospital insists. The clause denies that any mistake was made and makes the patient and the patient’s attorney promise never to reveal that money was paid to resolve the claim. If there is a system more rigged to perpetuate mistakes, I cannot think of what it might be.
Malpractice defense attorneys will admit privately that there are doctors whom they refer to in private as “frequent flyers.” These are the doctors who get sued over and over again by patients and yet are permitted to continue to practice medicine. Since all malpractice suits are disclosed to the Arizona Medical Board, it is clear that the Medical Board knows who these people are and just doesn’t care as these doctors continue to practice and continue to injure people.
Medical secrecy is not just a health problem. It is not just a legal problem. It is an ethical problem as it involves doctors not being honest with their patients. Sometimes it involves out-and-out lying to the patient or the patient’s family. What is the response of the medical profession and its enablers when a doctor or a hospital is finally called to account for a mistake? They cry that frivolous malpractice cases are driving up health care costs and driving doctors out of practice and that something needs to be done about it. A little more honesty and a little less secrecy on the part of the medical profession would be a welcome change.
