PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

States may offer medical liability solutions

AMA will study medicolegal panels and laws to protect physicians' assets to see if they could work on a national level.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. July 7, 2003.

Chicago -- While the push for tort reform continues at the federal and state levels, physicians at the AMA's Annual Meeting in June started to look beyond caps and began considering other ways to improve the medical liability system.

For example, physicians want the ability to talk about errors -- defined as an unintended act or omission or a flawed system or plan that harms or has the potential to harm a patient -- without the fear of being named in a lawsuit. The frank discussions are a way to find problems with the system and prevent some errors from happening in the first place, doctors say.

"Physicians have become intimidated by the law," said Leonard J. Morse, MD, former chair of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. "We need to talk about issues of error and learn from those errors."

The CEJA report adopted by the AMA House of Delegates says:

Physicians should play a central role in identifying, reducing and preventing health care errors.
Physicians should participate in developing reporting mechanisms that emphasize education and system change.
When an error occurs, physicians should offer a general explanation regarding the nature of the error and the measures being taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Physicians have a responsibility to provide continuity of care to patients who have been harmed. If a patient loses trust in a physician, another physician should step in.

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