Last Word
Doctors need to know…
“There would be another course on “Malpractice Insurance Contracts” and what to look for before paying the next premium of $80,000.”
I did not learn the right things at the
For instance, it’s apparent that since assisted suicide is now legal in one state with more states to follow, training in assisted suicide and euthanasia should be mandatory. When I was in school, the only instruction I received was in how to make people well. Suicide was something people did without help; which is, I think, the definition of suicide.
When I was an intern at Cook County Hospital 50 years ago, we heard anecdotes about spies during the Great War. If an operative was in danger of being captured or tortured for information, he took a potassium cyanide capsule, which had been supplied to the agent as part of his basic equipment. The spy would suddenly turn blue and stop breathing. The beauty of it was that laws, appellate courts, supreme courts, and lawyers were not necessary.
There is going to be a demand, according to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, for new assisted suicide clinics in all 50 states. Shortly after that, I predict euthanasia clinics will be in vogue. I envision wonderful new ways to die, as depicted in the science fiction movie, “Soylent Green,” with Charlton Heston. This movie will be required viewing in “Euthanasia 101.”
“Managed Care Contract Law” is the name of another desperately needed set of lessons. Recently, I attended a seminar on risk management where the lecturer told us what language to look out for in these contracts. Now if I see that language, I will not sign the contract. I surveyed my colleagues at lunch, and they all denied actually reading any of their managed care contracts. They said they didn’t have the time to read them, so they signed all the contracts their secretaries gave them. According to the lecturer, this is not good risk management.
There are many other law courses I would like to take in medical school. Maybe the classes should be offered in premedical school…that would weed out the potential doctors who are afraid of the law or of lawyers. More likely, it would tempt more medical students to enter law school.
Obviously, there should be a very long course on “Malpractice.” I would include all known law cases that have been published in the medical journals over the last 50 years and would concentrate on those that cost doctors the most money. There would be another course on “Malpractice Insurance Contracts” and what to look for before paying the next premium of $80,000.
Once you have studied “Malpractice,” if you still decide to be a doctor, the next obvious course to take is one on “Physician Support Groups.” Course material will cover what they are, how to develop them and when to join. Psychiatrists have been telling us for years that when a doctor is sued, he becomes sleepless, depressed, angry, and potentially suicidal, but cannot talk to his colleagues about it because they would make fun of him.
A doctor’s support group is one where you learn to like being made fun of and where they will give you the cyanide capsule as a professional courtesy. Now that’s what I call good managed care.
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