Consumers and trial lawyers have been saying for years that if doctors would do a better job establishing standards and policing their own there would be less injuries and death and therefore less malpractice claims and (maybe) lower malpractice insurance.
The anesthesiologists figured this out and today, in constant dollars, they pay less for malpractice insurance than they did 20 years ago.
More importantly deaths have have dropped from 1 in 5000 cases to 1 in 200,000 to 300,000 cases.
One interesting comment by a doctor from Utah: “I don’t think physicans are very good systems thinkers, by in large.” He also said that many physicans prize their independence and that makes it hard to achieve the kind of cooperation necessary to reduce errors.
Check out the article in that well-known tool of the plaintiff’s bar -the Wall Street Journal (registration required).
The bottom line is this: we are talking about people’s lives. It is time to set egos aside and protect the patient. Most doctors want to do just that. Maybe this article will convince those that don’t to make the necessary changes to save money on insurance.