Oftentimes doctors fall into a practice that is called defensive medicine. This is a practice which includes taking diagnostic and therapeutic measures that are not really concerned with the health of a patient, but with ruling out potential medical malpractice suits. Oftentimes, doctors will practice defensive medicine techniques in order to steer clear of potential litigation cases. Defensive medicine has become increasingly common in the United States, with 79% to 93% of all doctors engaged in the practice. High-risk specialty positions such as emergency medicine, obstetrics and other such medical fields are the most likely to engage in defensive medicine tactics.

Defensive medicine can typically take on two main forms. For one, it can be manifested in assurance behavior. This involves charging additional, unnecessary services to patients in order to reduce adverse outcomes that may arrive in order to deter patients from filing medical malpractice claims because of side effects or pains that could have been avoided with another medicine. As well, the assurance behaviors can sometimes provide documented evidence that a doctor is practicing according to the standard of care.

By over-prescribing unnecessary medications, the doctor is able to allot for any possible outcome and this reduces the amount of lawsuits that a patient can develop. For example, if a person is taking a medication that has a headache side effect, the doctor may also prescribe headache medicine just to make sure that this will not happen. While the headache medicine was not necessary, the extra effort proves to patients that the doctor thought through the side effects and he or she can now no longer be sued for forgetting an important component. The other type of defense medicine is the less-common avoidance procedure. This is another effort which doctors use in order to avoid a potential medical malpractice suit.

Typically in avoidance procedures, a doctor will refuse to do a high-risk procedure or operate in specific circumstances because of the potential for a lawsuit. In these situations, if a person's health deteriorates after the avoidance procedure then the doctor may still be allowed to be sued for failing to take actions that were necessary to preserve a person's health or life. The same sort of argument can be made for a doctor that uses assurance behavior in order to try and avoid a lawsuit. If the accumulation of medications that the doctor prescribed were unnecessary or produced an unexpected adverse effect, then the patient has the right to sue in this situation. There are varieties of reasons that doctors will practice defensive medication, and Jackson Healthcare recently released the findings from a survey that they did where they interviewed 1,548 doctors on their stance with defensive medicine.

Respondents claimed that the main reason that the practiced defensive medicine was to avoid being named in a potential lawsuit. This answer was echoed by 78% of all participants as the number one reason. Others said that they practice defensive medicine because it is the new standard of care or because the patient or family may demand that everything that is humanely possible be done, which leads to the tendency to perform assurance procedures, Others say that they believe that patients hold phsyicians to an unjust standard of perfection. They say that this has caused them to practice defensive medicine in fear of getting something wrong and being blamed. As well, many doctors said that they don't want to risk their personal finances by failing to perform assurance and avoidance tactics. Some doctors said that defensive medicine helps them to preserve their reputation, ot helps them to be sure ta tthey have not missed something. In addition, some doctors said that they had already been named in a medical malpractice lawsuit and wre paranoid of repeating the experience with another mistake.

Others say that they gave into defensive medicine after peer pressure got the best of them. Some doctors say that they reasoned that many doctors are practicing defensive medicine and they would look out of the loop if they did not join the group. If you have been subject to defensive medicine, then you may have the right to sue your doctor, even though he may have over-prescribed medications for you in order to avoid one of these legal cases. Talk to a local medical malpractice attorney if you want more information or want to discuss medical malpractice strategies regarding claims for defensive medicine. With the right attorney on your side you may be able to obtain the compensation that you deserve for your suffering.