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We Are Your
Doctors: Please be Kind “The biggest
cost of suits brought under the malpractice system is the emotional
injury that physicians experience when they believe they did the
best possible under difficult circumstances.” ~ AMA Board of
Trustees Much has been
written recently in the local news about medical malpractice—escalating
premiums, physicians leaving medicine due to threat of lawsuits
or inability to obtain coverage, the right of an injured patient
to appropriate redress… but little about its impact on the
physician as an individual. A great physician
strives for perfection, seeks and accepts responsibility, and is
willing to sacrifice. But what makes us great also opens us to the
injuries and burnouts of medical practice. Our medical culture demands
time from our families and ourselves. We have high rates of substance
abuse. We have 20% higher rates of divorce. Male physicians are
twice as likely to commit suicide as the general population; female
physicians have four times that rate. We are in a high profile,
high stress occupation but have chosen this road and embrace this
journey. Being your physician is not just what we do, it is who
we are. A medical malpractice
case doesn’t simply question our care, it attacks our being.
It leads to shock, distress, shame, and depression. We begin to
doubt our medical abilities. The secrecy or infamy isolates us from
our family, friends, and colleagues. When faced with
a recent medical malpractice case, I examined my own words and actions
with diligence—had I done everything that I should? I was “negligent,
incompetent, reckless, careless” —was this so? My case dragged
on for more than a year before it was dismissed, and for most of
those days the specter of my alleged mistakes rode upon my shoulder.
The thick cream envelope from my lawyer sapped me daily, full of
arcane motions, actions, and requests for more information. These
missives in foreign tongues did nothing to comfort me; they just
kept the wound open. Did this continued
onslaught affect my care of my patients? Yes it did. Although I
still took great care with them and their medical needs, I was less
trusting, less open, more cautious. I practiced “defensively”,
and bonded with them more selectively. Now, almost
two years later, the case has caused me to follow a different path—to
practice part-time medicine and spend more time writing and speaking
to help medical caregivers to learn to first “turn care inward”. But am I a sole
case of damage wrought by our malpractice system, a weak link? Statistics
prove that this is not so. Each year, twenty-five percent of all
physicians will be sued for malpractice. Sixty percent of physicians
will be sued at least once in their career. Obstetricians will face
up to an eighty-five percent likelihood of a lawsuit. All agree
that the odds of a “bad outcome” with a patient are higher
the more ill he or she is, thus doctors taking on the sickest patients
are more likely to be sued. Yet, despite the “large number”
of lawsuits turned away by lawyers as being without merit, two of
three malpractice suits brought will be closed without settlement.
Less than ten percent of suits will be tried to conclusion, and
of those that make it to court, there is an expected 81% defense
verdict according to data provided by PMSLIC of Pennsylvania, another
state facing a malpractice crisis. So, nothing
much happened did it? But defending oneself in our legal system
is akin to protecting against a personal attack. It can lead to
defensive physician-patient relationships, impaired decision making
confidence, and burnout. This puts us at future risk, as burned
out physicians are even more likely to be sued again. The lawsuits
create shortages of physicians, as those sued are more likely to
stop seeing certain types of patients, retire early from medicine,
and discourage their children from following in their footsteps. Please remember
that we physicians are both human and vulnerable. Writing of his
physician father in “The Art of Healing”, the poet W.H.
Auden said: Most patients
believe We are your
doctors. We are vulnerable. Please care for us, too. Virginia Beach
gastroenterologist, Patricia L. Raymond M.D. FACG is an author and
consultant, who speaks to nurses and physicians through hospital
systems and medical conventions. With her company Rx For Sanity™,
she humorously leads physicians and nurses to rediscover their joy
in medicine and to learn to first “Turn Care Inward”.
Her book, “Don’t Jettison Medicine: Resuscitate Your Passion
For The Career You Loved!” is available now. Visit www.RxForSanity.com
soon for complimentary information and links to better care for
yourself and for your staff, and to subscribe to our FREE monthly
newsletter, Rx For Sanity™ eNews, with medical humor and simple tips
to enhance your life in Medicine.
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About Dr. Raymond • Speaking Topics • Articles • The Sanity Store • Sensational Free Stuff Subscribe to Passionate Health Care Newsletter Subscribe to Your Health Choice Newsletter Patricia L. Raymond, MD FACP FACG 757-547-0368 • 757-547-7727(Fax) • PLRaymond at RxForSanity.com All Rights Reserved. © 2007 Patricia L. Raymond |
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