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  • Essay / The Effects of Malpractice Lawsuits on the Health Care System

    Ill-informed verdicts from medical malpractice lawsuits and the rising cost of medical malpractice insurance are believed to contribute to the high cost of care medical. In effect, they force doctors to practice defensive medicine by ordering additional tests and procedures to protect themselves in the event of a lawsuit. The amount spent on these precautions, legal fees, claims and unlimited damages is also reflected in the increasing cost of medical care that is passed on to patients. Today, patients are becoming more litigious because many lawyers lure you in with advertisements geared toward medical malpractice suits. Most of the time, malpractice suits consist of falsified allegations, considered by most people to be an abuse of the system. In addition to these embarrassing lawsuits, plaintiffs are awarded large sums of money for damages because there is no cap on the amounts awarded by the courts. The increase in malpractice lawsuits has affected the healthcare system due to damages paid by doctors, leading to an increase in the medical malpractice insurance rate. In this case, malpractice refers to the negligence or misconduct of a health worker such as a doctor. Failure to meet a standard of care or standard of conduct recognized by this profession rises to the level of professional misconduct when a patient is injured due to an error made. For example, doctors are less friendly to patients for fear of being sued for malpractice, which leads patients to be less helpful in providing them with certain information that would help avoid treatment errors. “Hospitals and doctors' offices, hoping to reduce medical errors, have invested heavily in putting computers, smartphones and other devices on paper by health care workers and getting them to reconsider donating them. an immediate diagnosis which leads to excessive use of defensive medicine. If the level of patient-doctor communication were higher, it would leave less room for error and more room for success in the medical establishment. If the risk of malpractice were not so great, the level of care and empathy would increase in the healthcare industry. Work cited Washington Times, November 29, 2009: n°3. Costs of defensive medicine; Litigation-inspired testing gets in the way of necessary testing. The Washington Times. Internet. Accessed March 6, 2012. Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. The New York Times, March 11, 2011. Medicaid and New York's Budget: A Bad Malpractice Deal. The New York Times Company. Internet. Retrieved March 8, 2012. Chen, P. W, December 20, 2011. “Well; Once sued, many are twice shy. The New York Times, the web. Retrieved March 8. 2012.