Tort Reform : Alternative Models Alan
نویسنده
چکیده
The primary means for patients in the United States to gain redress for grievances against hospitals and physicians is the tort system. Largely through rulings from state and federal courts, we rely on the tort system to incentivize individuals and firms to take appropriate care of those in their charge, compensate those who are harmed by their actions, manage risk, and punish those who fail to fulfill their duty of care. Although those may be laudable goals for any society to achieve, there is a lot to dislike about the U.S. tort system. High costs, poor efficiency, unpredictable and even bizarre outcomes, unintended consequences, and inequitable results seem to characterize the current U.S. tort system for many of us on the defense side of the court room. This article reviews some of those issues, looks at what many state legislatures have done to ameliorate them, reviews the success those states have had in reforming their tort system, and finally looks at alternatives to our current tort system and what we can learn from the novel approaches of other countries in managing medical malpractice.
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