Defensive Medicine Can Cause Serious Personal Injuries And Lead To Medical Malpractice, Which Is What Defensive Medicine Is Trying To Avoid!

Medical Malpractice Mistakes

Defensive medicine is a form of practicing medicine wherein a healthcare provider takes extra precautions to protect the physician against the patient as a potential plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit.  We know that New York medical malpractice is bad for patients, that is obvious.  So that must mean that defensive medicine is good for patients, right?

Wrong!

Defensive medicine can result in unnecessary tests and procedures because a healthcare provider is being overly cautious.  This means unnecessary tests which could be invasive and cause the patient harm for no reason other than to quell a potential lawsuit.  These procedures also carry their own risks, which could cause further injury to the patient.  For instance, if a doctor is being overly caution and decides to do a colonoscopy on a patient that the guidelines clearly do not recommend such procedure for, the patient could end up with a bowl perforation or complication causing serious injury or even death.  This injury should never have been encountered, but for the defensive medicine.

There is also the emotional pain and suffering that a patient may go through as many tests may result in false positives.  This is common with cancer diagnoses and other very serious medical conditions.  This can be completely unnecessary and end up causing other injuries to a patient, including physical injuries such as heart pain, anxiety, and related issues.

Moreover, this can result in over treatment and over medicating patients.  Overuse of antibiotics has been claimed to cause super bacteria and drug-resistant strains, which can cause life-threatening infections.  Antibiotics can also kill a lot of the bacteria in a patient’s body too, including all of the good bacteria which can make a patient sick.  Further, antibiotics can also cause kidney or liver damage if taken too much.

But what do you think?  I would love to hear from you!  Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com.  You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.