Pushing ahead with malpractice reform - with or without Congress

Philip K. Howard, founder and chairman of Common Good, writes about establishing special health courts as a way to reform the medical liability system.

 

Health care reform gives the sense of a ship tossed about in stormy seas, with political decisions to steer here or there in reaction to the uncertain winds of public opinion and a gale of special interests.  The fact of a partisan mutiny makes the destination very uncertain.  Will reform capsize altogether, will it wash us onto the shoals of unaffordability, or will it lead us towards a new social contract?  

 

The area in which I’ve been most involved is trying to improve our system of medical justice.  The basic goal is to create a reliable system of justice that will provide the transparency and openness needed to improve patient safety, the trust in justice needed to reduce defensive medicine, and a reduction in adversarial process needed for quick and fair compensation for injured patients. 

 

It’s hard to find anyone in health care who doesn’t support some version of this change—patient safety experts, consumer groups, providers, as well as editorial boards and the public at large, all overwhelmingly support trying to create a reliable foundation of justice.  (See here, here, and here.)