American Warmonger

. . . not to mention that deaths attributed to guns are usually accomplished with malice and forethought, which is a heck of a lot different than the sound of "oops" in the operating room.

AMA is never going to regulate itself because they're a bunch of bubbas who never want to be in the hot seat themselves. Putting a cap on medical malpractice only gives bad doctors a free pass and encourages MORE problems, not less.

Think about this: There are over 50,000 heart operations in the US every day. One of those idiot heart surgeons finished last in his class.

So since the states license doctors, (1) make the states solve this problem with crappy doctors who kill people when they are anesthetized (2) make states liable if malfeasant physicians don't loose their licenses, and (3) get the feds out of this issue entirely.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you man. The states have been given the opportunity to do something and nothing happens. Death and murder are considered federal offenses. Shouldn't we do the same for doctors and make it a federal license instead of the failed states system we have now?

The entire medical situation makes me want to stay well forever.
About medications: I can't help wonder how much stock, physicians own in the pharmaceuticals.

Very interesting stuff Jeremy. Great post.

Death and murder are NOT actually federal offenses -- at all. :)

As for the doctors thing, I'm still not sure I like the idea that last time I went for surgery, they very intentionally gave me a drug before surgery that was designed to make me forget. They even told me that it was designed that way. I jokingly said that they could drop me off the gurney on the way to surgery and I wouldn't know it, and they responded, "that's right!"

The figure of 120,000 involves all unexpected deaths in hospitals for the year of the study. So if a pharmacist made a dispensing error or someone slipped on wet floor that ended up in the statistics. The bulk of the unexpected deaths were from frail, elderly people whose hospital course was complicated by infection, usually pnuemonia or urinary tract. Also, every doctor see thousands of patients in a year where as every gun presumably has only one owner, so your comparison is foolish on its face. And for mustang, I can assure you that no chest surgeon finished last in his class. The field is too competitive, only the top 5-10 percent make it to that level. Family practice, psychiatry, those are the fields that draw the bottom of the class.

Thank you Iron Mike. That makes me feel a bit safer going to the doctor now. I was hoping is was just an overinflated number from stuff like that. It cought me they were using the term "accidental" instead of "unexpected".

True - hospitals are dangerous, and I can understand your fear. I don't understand why you think others should face their fears fighting the war you love in Iraq while you play at home.
Warmonger, or Chicken Hawk?????
Shame.

For BBBastard: That was an uncalled for remark and off topic. But thanks for your idiotic input anyway. FYI, Jeremy served his country in uniform, did you?

Jeremy: Every time we give the federal government more responsibility, they only make matters worse. Not everything works well at the national level, buddy -- that's why we have states. Don't you think it is up to the people in the states to insist their governments do a better job?

Ironmike: Thanks for the clarification. When in the Corps, there were Navy interns I was sure finished last in their class.

Semper Fi

Well, your logic is a bit flawed, even if the numbers are correct. The numbers don't support the assertion that 17.1% of the doctors are responsible for accidental deaths.

Each doctor in the country has, by the numbers, 17.1% of one death attributable to him. The facts are that some doctors are responsible for more than their share, and some are not responsible for any accidental deaths. The challenge is to find those in the latter category.

Mike

Excellent post, I'd ran across those figures a long time ago and had forgotten about them. Thanks for the post, and I've crossposted it on my site. Excellent site.

As for the reasons the AMA does not take more interest in seeing that deaths and medical mishaps happen is that enforcement of the code of ethics that doctors actions are governed by are administered by a group of "doctors". It is the old fox guarding the hen house. The board of professional responsibility which is the watch dog and enforcer of the code of ethics for our lawyers (American Bar Association) also adjudicate sanctions and reprimands which falls into the same circumstance except they do have some people that are supposedly not lawyers and not biased, if you believe that. I have dealt with both entities and my experience is that these self governing professional communities are basically defend their comrades and basically until one of these "bad doctors" or "bad lawyers" cross the line into criminal action there are few sanctions or reprimands ordered. If you believe that these self governing professional communities are doing what needs to be done to thwart this kind of behavior and bad practice you have been badly misinformed. It is a joke and the joke is on the public. Most Doctors and the hospitals are in business and the bottom line is to protect their business. Why don't the government pay for educating folks who want to be doctors (and not businessmen). This would probably generate enough interest for our young people that the public would have plenty of doctors its need. This would also promote a profession that really does adhere "changing the basis for the reasons to be a doctor" to the origins of what the Hippocratic oath once stood for. Then we could make laws that would (in a healthy way) protect doctors from outlandish law suits i.e. the good Samaritan law.