According to a new law in the state of Massachusetts, doctors in the state now have a duty to report any medical errors that they make during an appointment, surgery, or procedure. After admitting to the mistake, the doctors have the right to apologize to the victim without facing the possibility of a medical malpractice lawsuit. The state is changing their health care laws in order to overhaul the states approach to medical malpractice.
Both physicians and attorneys think that the new law changes are an excellent idea. They say that this will help improve patient safety, because doctors will no longer be nervous to admit complications to their patients. In many cases, doctors will underreport or fail to report a medical error, putting their patient at risk to deteriorating health. When asked why they failed to admit their mistake, most doctors confessed that they didn’t want to deal with a lawsuit. Issues like a misdiagnosis can be incredibly dangerous if a physician cannot admit that he or she may have gotten it wrong. Also, sometimes a physician is told that he should not discuss a lawsuit with anyone, including a spouse or the medical staff at the hospital. This can lead to further complications.
As well, they open that it will reduce the amount of frivolous lawsuits regarding medical malpractice issues. Some patients would litigate for simply misdiagnosis, costing the hospitals in court costs and any eventual settlements. The main goal behind the new legislation is reducing health care costs. According to Governor Deval Patrick, the new statutes will govern all lawsuits and make sure that patients don’t take the hospital to court over issues that are not important or worthy of a lawsuit. Patrick also established a 182-day cooling off period which will occur when both sides try to reach a settlement in a lawsuit. The plaintiff and defendant will need to exchange information and allow health care providers to acknowledge making a mistake, without letting that apology become a legal admission of liability.
As well, the new laws increase the maximum amount of compensation for patients that do have worthy cases and are inured at a non-profit hospital. The governor says that those who can receive this higher settlement must have been injured because of a legitimate malpractice issue at a non-profit hospital, not by a nurse or doctor. Originally, people in this situation could only receive up to $20,000 in compensation. They can now hope to obtain up to $100,000.
In addition to all of these changes, the new laws create a task force which will study the overuse of medical testing, and the dangers of defensive medicine. Defensive medicine is essentially performed when a doctor provides a series of tests that are unnecessary for an illness simply to avoid litigation from a patient. The former President of the Massachusetts Medical Society says that if you take fear out of the equation, people will stop practicing defensive medicine and instead practice evidence-based medicine. The Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Bar Association, and Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys have all spoken out in support of the laws.
While most supporters believe that the new laws will do a lot for patients and patient safety, Jeffery Catalano says that there needs to be a “good faith effort” on both sides for this to work. He says that he is particularly referring to patients, who will need to cooperate during the cooling-off periods after litigation. Yet he says that he is optimistic about the changes and believes that in the end they will do a lot for patient rights. Last year, 485 medical malpractice cases were filed in this state. The state does not track how many plaintiffs received compensation, but they hope that in the future only those cases where justice is needed will make it to the court house.