Question

It has been reported that because providers fear litigation, they often order testing on patients that is not actually necessary just to be certain that no "stone is left unturned." Discuss the implications of this practice, for the provider, the patient and health care in general.

Answer 1

The increase in the cases of litigation by the patients on the doctors and healthcare institutions have become a major concern in the health care community in the last few decades.

The medical field is a complex subject and there are no definitive results. There is no way to tell the outcome of a procedure with 100% surety. A drug or a procedure that is suitable for 99% of the patients can have bad outcomes in the remaining 1%. The fear of getting sued by the patients has led the doctors to order more tests than normal to be on a safer side. Ordering those tests and having their results help as a documented evidence which can be used to support their treatment in case of any mishaps.

For example let’s say there was a patient came with a headache. The physician gave him medication and the patient left. After few days the patient comes to know he has a brain tumour through other physician. He sued the first physician with the help of his lawyer for not Identifying the tumour in the first place which led to delay in the diagnosis and advancement the tumour. A similar situation happened few years back. A brain tumour is one of the hundreds of causes of headache and one in some hundreds of patients with headache will have brain tumour. This doesn’t mean we have to order brain scanning for all the hundreds of patients to not miss one patient. But unfortunately that is what’s happening now a days. Physicians are forced to order tests that are not routinely necessary for the fear of beating sued.

This kind of practice is having some undesirable effects on the medical practice. The clinicians and the health care providers are in the state of continuous fear of being sued for malpractice. This is causing them to order more tests which are increasing the cost of health care. The health care in USA is amongst the costliest health care in the world. These addition of some unwanted tests in most cases adds up to the health care costs and health insurance costs. The health care institutions and physicians are also forced to take malpractice insurance. The burden of which eventually falls on the patients. This makes the patients to pay more than what they actually need for even minor ailments. Thus making health insurance and health care out of reach for many people. All these eventually have a considerable effect on the economy and over all development of the country.

These are my views on the given topic. Hope this helps you out. Please feel free to give your feedback and if you need further elaborate discussion on this topic. Thank you and have a great day.