Surgery News

Collaborative Healthcare Solutions, an alternative to medical malpractice lawsuits

Very little is more contentious in medicine than the topic of medical malpractice, lawsuits, and tort reform. The large number of stakeholders with financial and emotional capital are immense. There is little need for me to further describe our current state of ‘deny and defend’, with fear of malpractice cases by healthcare workers, limited to no discussion after a bad outcome, defensive medicine, and assertions by plaintiff’s attorneys that they alone represent the interests of an injured patient.

Severe nosebleeds (epistaxis in medical jargon) are a great example of the secondary, often adverse effects of medical advances which run up the bill for medical costs in the United States.

For many community surgeons, being on call for their practice brings this emergency scenario to life on a routine basis, perhaps not the immediate life threatening bleeding or airway issue, but nonetheless very urgent situations that must be dealt with quickly

The trenches, where the real tough, gritty work is done, aptly describes the daily life and work of a community surgeon. ENT (ear, nose, and throat) in my case.