Issues for the Health Care Professionals
I chose to use the medical specialty of medical surgeon for my paper; my reasoning behind this medical specialty is because surgeons account for nearly 50% of all medical malpractice law suits in the country. The bulk of these law suits occur in just 75 of the largest counties , which indicates that most medical malpractice law suits occur in the more densely populated areas which is where the most income is generated. Another 33% of nonsurgical law suits occur in the same 75 counties which when added together account for 83% of all law suits filed in the United States. To put these numbers in the proper context there are thousands of counties in the United States, so what you have is the people in areas like New York, Las Angeles, Atlanta and so on filing thousands of law suits each year. It is estimated that from 1990-2004 there were over 191,804 medical malpractice lawsuits reported to the National Practitioner Databank (NPD) regarding physicians in the United States.
It is further estimated that of all the medical law suits filed only about 27% of them were won by the plaintiffs, which can lead a person to believe that there are a lot of frivolous suits being filed. It is estimated that 25% of all doctors in the United States are sued each year, which means that if you are a surgeon you have a better than 1 in 4 chance of getting sued each year that you practice medicine. It must be for love of the profession because with those odds I cannot see why anyone would want to be a doctor in this country. It is also estimated that between 50 and 60 percent of all doctors in the United States are sued at least once in their careers. The even more staggering statistic is that of all medical malpractice law suits made throughout the world the United States account for 80% with all of the other countries combined account for only 20%, this says a lot about our tort reform laws.
Surgeons make up the largest specialty field in the medical community so it’s no wonder that they bear the brunt of medical liability lawsuits. This specialty includes everything from brain, heart, orthopedic to cosmetic, also by comparison they make more money than your family practitioner, and they tend to pay more for their malpractice insurance.
The surgeon is responsible for everything that relates to a patient while under their care and supervision, which is why it’s very important they always act in the best interest of their patients, relatives, and colleagues. Some studies have shown that often physicians are in doubt as to the best actions to take in certain situations. A surgeons primary job is to save lives, and in many cases this involves having to look at each case differently and apply ethical reasoning in their decision making process. This can often mean explaining the actions that they take in situations where they might not be sure what the right actions are. Ethical dilemmas generally occur when a physician is faced with at least two alternatives both of which will have difficult courses of actions. Because both courses of action might not have a positive outcome the physician has to choose between the lesser of two evils.
Today’s surgeons are faced with more ethical dilemmas than at any other point in our history, due in large part to the efficiency of medical technology and the growth in the availability of scientific information that can be readily accessed on the internet. Almost any medical procedure that a patient might be faced with can be found on the internet with possible different outcomes, which forces a physician to explain alternatives that they might otherwise not consider.
Today’s patients expect more from their doctors than in the past, in many cases those expectation are greater than what the doctor is medically able to provide, because patients expectations are not met this can often lead to law suits being filed by patients. The fear of a potential law suit often leads to physicians practicing defensive medicine which may lead to reduced trust between doctor and patient. When asked most surgeons admit that they are faced with ethical dilemmas periodically, almost all state that consideration for their patient is the single factor in resolving these issues.
Through my research for this paper I am gaining a new respect for doctors, because of the many ethical decisions that the doctors are faced with, one of the most gut wrenching is the decision to either start or stop treatment. Prior to now I thought it was pretty cut and dried by that I mean the decisions that have to be made in certain specialties. To name a couple of areas that I would find extremely difficult were it me making the decision to continue treatment or withhold it. The elderly uses up huge resources and in many cases the care that they receive is just to ease pain and suffering, however how are you supposed to not give a 70 year old that kidney transplant when they are at the top of the list yet their life span is coming to an end. Especially when compared to maybe a 30 year old that is next on the register for a kidney transfer, for me this presents a huge ethical dilemma, as I’m sure it does for the doctor. the children is another area that creates many ethical dilemmas for doctors in my readings there are many instances where a pregnant mothers find out during their pregnancy that her unborn child has birth severe defects, in many cases the mother will opt for an abortion which can cause a huge ethical dilemma for the doctor. All of these things make me wonder how, does the executioner or the abortion doctor justify their actions based on the Hippocratic Oath, not to mention Dr Kevorkian, and the services that he provided. I now have a pretty good idea of what doctors are faced with on a regular basis, and am not envious of them in any way the monies that they earn, they deserve every penny, even the not so good ones.
Legal issues as they pertain to doctors boils down to one major thing medical malpractice lawsuits. Trial lawyers see medical malpractice law suits as the last frontier as it pertains to million dollar judgments, which accounts for the millions that are spent on lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. The legal profession is glutted every year with more and more lawyers many hoping to land that great position in some of the nation’s top law firms, the reality of the situation is quite different. Many lawyers earn less than 50,000 per year and often they will work as paralegals, or contract out to large law firms working as contract employees, sometimes for as little as $20.00 per hour. Hence the term ambulance chaser is born, the majority of lawyers work in small firms and the easiest way to make a living in the profession is to find someone that has been the victim of a perceived medical malpractice injury or someone involved in an auto accident. Medical malpractice statistics show that for every dollar awarded in compensation 54 cents go towards administration cost, lawyer’s fees, expert witness testimony, and a variety of other things, which means that the bulk of compensation do not go to the plaintiffs.
With the current health care reform legislation pending in congress it’s well worth it for the trial lawyers association to spend millions to ensure that federally mandated caps are not placed on the judgments that juries are allowed to award for punitive damages. While doctors are bound by ethical rules and has to operate within the legal constraints of the laws of each state, as well as federally mandated laws. Lawyers are under no such constraints they are free to advertise to the general public, or chase ambulances.

References
BMC Medical Ethics (2005) Action ethical dilemmas in surgery: an interview study of practicing surgeons Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com December 9, 2009
Russell M. Medical Malpractice Statistics Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Malpractice---Medical-Malpractice December 9, 2009

Bureau of Justice Statistics (2007) MAJORITY OF MEDICAL MALPRATICE CLAIMS IN SEVEN STATES CLOSED WITHOUT COMPENSATION PAYMENTS Retrieved from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov December 14, 2009