114. An Insider’s Guide to Medical Malpractice | Why the US system is so peculiar and how to navigate the morass

The specter of medical malpractice lawsuits looms large for many clinicians, but according to Mark Brown, MD, JD, this anxiety may be disproportionate to the actual risk. In this discussion, we explore the contrasting nature of law and medicine, the unpredictable and capricious nature of legal proceedings, the systemic elements that fuel the high number of medical malpractice lawsuits in the United States, and several practices to reduce the risk of lawsuits.

Guest Bio:

Mark W. Brown, M.D., J.D., holds a JD from Harvard Law School (1970), and an MD from Dartmouth Medical School (1982). His career includes roles in the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, criminal defense practice, and teaching law at Southwestern School of Law. In medicine, he completed his internship and residency in Emergency Medicine at Presbyterian Hospital, San Francisco, and UCLA and is currently an emergency physician at Antelope Valley Medical Center and clinical faculty member at UCLA School of Medicine. 

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For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast website

We Discuss: 

• The Fundamental Difference Between Law and Medicine
• Should you be worried about the National Practitioner Data Bank?
• Can Getting Sued Lead to Getting Sanctioned by the Medical Board?
• The Odds of Getting Sued
• Three Reasons Why The US Has So Many Malpractice Suits
• Should You Push For Settling a Lawsuit?
• The Plaintiff's Attorney Is Not Your Friend, Even If They Act Like It
• When the Doctor's Med Mal Fear Supersedes the Patient's Risk Tolerance
• What's Really Happening in a Deposition
• High Yield and Low-Cost Ways to Reduce Med Mal Risk and Anxiety
• There's a Big Ticket Item That Your Documentation Doesn't Capture
• What to do About Hindsight Bias