Day on Torts
Pardon me, but I have always been a fan of facts. Opinions are like … noses, everybody has one.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has analyzed paid claims data and discovered that in 2005 Tennessee had 10.1 paid med mal claims per 1000 active, non-federal physicians. Total paid claims were 156. The national average was 17.1 paid claims per 1000 active, non-federal physicians.
Tennessee ranked 12th lowest in the Nation by this measure. We are the fourth lowest in the South Census Region.
By the way, Tennessee has 17,888 active physicians not employed by the feds, the 16th highest total in the nation. And while I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this number (it comes from the AMA) another website that cites the Kaiser data from two years earlier says that at that time Tennessee had 15,447 physicians. If Kaiser got its data from the AMA for both years, and if the other website accurate quotes the Kaiser website from 2004, then Tennessee has seen an over 10% increase in physicians in the last two years. And I thought I heard doctors were leaving the state.
The average payment in a Tennessee med mal case is 13 % less than the national average.
Our healthcare employment percentage is higher than the nation as a whole.
And while the number of hospitals in the nation is shrinking, Tennesse has added 6 hospitals in the six-year period ending in 2004.
But then again, these are just facts.