By Deepak Chopra, MD, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, Joseph B. Weiss, MD, Nancy Cetel Weiss, MD, and Danielle E. Weiss, MD
Complications in medical care occur at a staggering rate, resulting in over 440,000 accidental deaths from medical errors (the vast majority not considered malpractice, such as side effects from drugs) in U.S. hospitals each year. Self-governance by health systems and providers has not made significant inroads to reduce this catastrophic failure in patient safety. The inefficient and expensive medical malpractice lawsuit industry has neither reduced nor prevented the ever growing numbers of medical injuries and death, nor provided compensation or justice to the vast majority of those injured. The main beneficiaries of malpractice lawsuits are the attorneys, whose contingency fees can lead to multimillion-dollar windfalls, and insurance companies collecting high malpractice premiums. They profit at the expense of others and contribute to the continually escalating costs of medical care. The vast majority of medical injury and death does not result in a malpractice claim, and of those filed most fail at trial. In spite of this high failure rate, malpractice actions have worsened the situation by further encouraging excessive, expensive, and higher risk care under the rationale of defensive medicine.
