Brian Klepper
What Will It Take To Re-establish Stability and Sustainability to American Health Care? Will It Be Driven Through Policy or the Marketplace?
Problem
In its current form, America’s health care justice system is capricious, unreliable, and onerously expensive. It does not discourage error or encourage error proofing. Health care providers unilaterally loathe it and seek change, while the health care bar generally opposes reforms. At the same time, serious national health care quality standardization efforts still have not taken root and, even if they had, they have not been incorporated into health care justice processes. That said, medical errors do occur and a balanced medical liability system is critically important.
Actions
Establish efforts that focus on revamping the health care justice system and American health care’s approach to quality management and error prevention.
Revamp America’s Health Care Justice System
Problem
America’s current health care justice system is not reliable (meaning that the same circumstance often produces different results), does not discourage errors, and promotes unnecessary (defensive) care services.
Action
Establish a national commission to review and recommend reforms to the system.
Note: Common Good (www.cgood.org), an advocacy organization focused on liability reform supported by many health care leaders, calls for the establishment of special expert health care courts and a no-fault system, in which errors are quickly acknowledged, awards follow an actuarially calculated schedule, and litigation only occurs if plaintiffs believe they can prove that the error resulted from gross negligence, serious professional incompetence or malevolence.
Promote and Link Standardized Quality Management and Clinical Error Prevention to Health Care Justice Processes
Problem
Relatively few health care organizations have yet to establish rigorous quality management programs that help prevent errors. Worse, most successful quality management programs exist in virtual isolation, with relatively little standardization across the industry that can serve as a foundation of a national health care justice system.
Action
Establish a national quality commission that:
Promotes standardization of quality management approaches for clinical error prevention.
Links quality management and clinical error prevention to health care justice processes.
Principle 5: Rebalance America’s Health Care Justice System To Protect Patients Without Compromising The Health System’s Viability.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
