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The Case for Health Courts Philip K. Howard
ThisMakesMeSick.com, February 10, 2006 America needs a new system of medical justice. Justice in healthcare today is virtually random—most people who are injured by medical errors get no compensation, and far too often, especially in tragic circumstances, doctors who did nothing wrong are held liable for millions of dollars. This unreliability has infected healthcare with a debilitating distrust—driving up healthcare costs through defensive medicine, and causing thousands of tragic errors because doctors and nurses are no longer open with each other about uncertainties or mistakes.
The flaw is that justice today is ad hoc—decided jury by jury without any consistency or precedent; tolerating widely disparate results for similar circumstances. By most measures, the current system is a failure:
—The Institute of Medicine says: "The legal liability system does not adequately fulfill either of its two main objectives—to encourage enhanced safety and quality and to provide timely and fair compensation to injured patients."
—The Progressive Policy Institute says: "It does not give most injured patients access to justice, and it does not send clear signals about standards of care that would help healthcare providers avoid medical mistakes."
—The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations says: The current system is "not a 'real system,' but rather a patchwork of disjointed and inconsistent decisions with a limited ability to inform the development of improved healthcare practices."
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