Health care reform silent on malpractice

To the Editor:

The News’s recent story on medical malpractice missed the point. While it correctly cited data that medical malpractice claims make up only one-fifth of one percent of all health care costs in this country, it failed to discuss the role medical errors play in our health care system.

According to a landmark study by the National Academy of Sciences, mistakes by doctors and other health care providers take the lives of as many as 98,000 Americans every year – and cause hugely expensive complications in hundreds of thousands of other cases. Any serious discussion of medical malpractice must begin with reducing its frequency, not denying compensation to its victims.

If any subject is given too little attention in the health care reform debate, it is patient safety. There are simple, proven ways to prevent medical errors. The challenge is persuading health care providers to adopt them. Many new protocols and safety measures resulted from the National Academy of Sciences report. But health care experts agree that we are nowhere near the report's goal of reducing medical errors by half in 10 years. Curtailing patients' rights to seek redress for negligence would only remove an established incentive for improvement.