"...the culture of secrecy in medicine is beginning to change, as leading patient safety organizations call for fuller disclosure of medical errors and some trend-setting hospitals decide an "honesty is best" policy will improve care..."
Since the 2003 law added requirements that made medical malpractice cases harder and more expensive to prove and less lucrative if won, the numbers of such suits filed in Harris County courts has been cut in half.In Chicago, this week, via the Chicago Daily Herald, "One of the longest-running medical malpractice cases in Kane County came to an end when a jury took less than three hours to reject negligence claims." The lawsuit, filed in early 1997, was tried before a Judge for nearly two weeks and involved a 65-year-old woman who died while in the hospital for a bout with diarrhea, anemia and dehydration. Break: Social security disability claims...Insurance premiums for doctors and hospitals have dropped 21.3 percent statewide, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, and a flood of physicians into the state has created a licensing backlog.
But some lawyers, injured folks and political activists are still alarmed.
"When you take accountability out of the system, what you do is encourage unqualified doctors to come to a place where they can practice without worry," Houston medical malpractice lawyer Jim Perdue Jr. said.
State records show, for example, that a doctor who lost her license in Virginia and New Mexico was granted a restricted license in Texas.
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