Malpractice Suits Physician’s Alert

It appears that the Physician’s Alert program of the Los Angeles County Medical Association has touched some raw nerves among some trial lawyers, particularly the three whose letters you published on Nov. 6.

One wonders why they get so worked up over a program aimed at nothing more than trying to reduce the number of medical malpractice lawsuits. Could it be that spotlighting the impact of medical malpractice costs on the cost of medical care draws too tightly on the purse strings of their pocketbooks? I think it does.

Our associates chose to make the Physician’s Alert program available to its members because it provides them with the ability to identify professional plaintiffs, those who come to the doctor’s office more interested in finding grounds for a lawsuit than treatment for a medical problem.

That there are people like that is attested to by the fact that 75% of all malpractice suits are without merit. Most are so-called frivolous or nuisance suits.

We have no interest in turning prospective patients away, including those who have filed valid lawsuits. In Detroit and Chicago, where the Physician’s Alert program has been operating for some time, doctors have refused to accept very few patients. To be very candid, most doctors these days need more patients, not less.

But they also need to be alerted when the patient, or potential patient, is a professional plaintiff.

Two of the attorneys who wrote discussed setting up a counterprogram to Physician’s Alert, one by which patients can find out the number of times a physician has been sued for malpractice. I have no objection to that kind of program provided it has the ability to provide full and proper information.

The first truth is that there is a vast difference between being sued and being guilty. The “Patient’s Alert” system must indeed be prepared to indicate how many malpractice lawsuits the doctor lost. Remember every defendant is innocent until proven guilty.

I also want to emphasize that if the record of a physician indicates a pattern of negligence or incompetence, we physicians are as anxious as anyone (with the possible exception of the trial lawyers) in curtailing that individual’s practice.

As for patients who suffer injury because of a physician’s negligence, incompetence, or even an unfortunate but honest mistake, medicine has always and still does support appropriate compensation.

MITCHELL S. KARLAN MD

President

Los Angeles County Medical Assn.