Social Policy Analysis (social work 258)

Medical malpractice, in general, is any act or failure to act by a member of the medical profession that results in harm, injury, distress, prolonged physical or mental suffering, or the termination of life to a patient while that patient is under the care of that medical professional.

Patient safety and the legal process are important components of medical malpractice, but the availability and affordability of liability insurance greatly influences medical malpractice policy. Rises in the cost of liability insurance and reductions in the availability of coverage have brought the malpractice system under scrutiny. As a result of increasing liability premiums, patients are losing access to care; some facilities have temporarily shut down; physicians in some states are reluctant to perform high-risk procedures; and early physician retirements appear to be on the rise. In order to resolve this dilemma, many argue that the focus must be on integrating liability coverage into the professional, commercial, and regulatory framework of health care financing and delivery.

A major part of the malpractice policy debate concerns the factors generating the large increase in premiums. Do premium increases simply reflect the insurance cycle, changes in market structure, and competition? Or, do they reflect increases in the incidence of negligent and substandard physician care? These questions and more are being considered in order to create a policy that reforms the current liability system and improves the malpractice crisis.

Resources from Social Science Literature:

•  The Forgotten Third: Liability Insurance and the Medical Malpractice Crisis (Health Affairs. 23 (4), July-August 2004)

•  Where Have All the Baby-Doctors Gone? Women's Access to Healthcare in Jeopardy: Obstetrics and the Medical Malpractice Insurance Crisis (Catholic University Law Review. 53 (2), Winter 2004)

•  Malpractice Reform Must Include Steps to Prevent Medical Injury (Annals of International Medicine. 140 (1), 51-53, January 2004)

Resources from Social Work Journals:

•  Physicians' Discourse on Malpractice and the Meaning of Medical Malpractice (Journal-of-Health-and-Social-Behavior. 37 (2): 163-78, June 1996)

•  The Doctor-Patient Relationship and Medical Malpractice Litigation (Bulletin-of-the-Menninger-Clinic. 57 (2): 195-207, Spring 1993)

Organizational Web Sites:

•  www.ama-assn.org

•  www.legal-database.com

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