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Physician, lawyer cooperation key to tort reform

Quality Improvement Monitor, June 2, 2005

Protecting patients from medical errors and fairly compensating those that do suffer as a result of an error is one step to effectively reform the medical-liability system, according to an editorial in the June 1 Journal of the American Medical Association.

Healthcare's 30-year pursuit of tort reform has had some results, but not all the consequences have been positive and serious problems with the quality of care have not been fixed, wrote Peter P. Budetti, MD, JD, of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

"Most important, the pattern of tort reforms pursued to date has not led to innovative legal approaches that serve both the profession and patients by tying liability law restructuring to systemic, evidence-based changes in medical practice that ensure adherence to not deviate from good medical care," Budetti said in the editorial.

Plaintiffs' attorneys, physicians, and patient-safety proponents need to work together to achieve fair compensation, Budetti said. The feelings of animosity between physicians and lawyers will hold back medical reform, not push it forward, he said.

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