<p>People keep saying how medicine is no longer as lucrative of a field because of malpractice and such. Is it really that bad? How much take home salary would a surgeon, who makes more but has more malpractice, recieve vs a neurologist that makes less but presumably has less malpractice?</p>
<p>Neurosurgeons at my hospital have premiums of $12,000.</p>
<p>Per month.</p>
<p>^^^^
Thats legal rape! :eek:</p>
<p>Well, yeah, but if they truly are at fault, then they have caused damages to someone's life or quality of life which some judge/jury is going to decide is worth X amount of $$. And we ain't talking peanuts. It's some kind of formula for figuring out what the person would have earned over their lifetime. Or sometimes it's just all the medical and care bills.</p>
<p>Don't forget pain and suffering and punitive damages in there. Those often comprise the larger portions of the final judgment.</p>
<p>our future lawyers =D</p>
<p>No lawyer here, we just learned the hard way from the patient perspective. Trouble w/d's pregnancy, dr ignored my observations (not my 1st child), hosp sent me home (not far enough along in labor) while the fetal heartbeat was located way above belly button....other errors in judgement that led to emergency c-section for breech w/ readily apparent uro-genital anomalies that led to destruction of one kidney (and lots of other internal damage). </p>
<p>The surgeon at birth said the anomaly would have been very easy to see and surgically correct in utero had dr performed ultrasound when I had requested several times.</p>
<p>Malpractice is a difficult thing. From the patient's perspective, there is always the "I should have done this, or I should have known that." But we are so trained to trust our dr and believe that they know exactly the right thing to do. Do I think the dr meant to mess up w/ my d? Of course not. In hindsight, I wish I had insisted loudly, complained loudly, and gotten my way, but at the time, I let my inner alarms be soothed by the dr. Meanwhile, we racked up over $250,000 in medical and surgical bills which insurance paid about 75%. That's what all you young doctors are paying your malpractice premiums for.</p>
<p>I don't know that "easy to surgically correct in utero" ever belongs in one sentence, but your point is certainly well-taken.</p>
<p>I know, and there's no minor surgery either (it's all major)! The surgical team outlined the problems one by one - in a nutshell, two problems could have been fixed in utero before they grew (I should say they were surgically correctable in utero) vs. 5 surgeries to repair damage plus weeks in intensive care.</p>
<p>What specialties tend to have the least?</p>
<p>Something like pediatrics?</p>
<p>1.) Anybody in CA.</p>
<p>2.) Things that deal with old people.</p>
<p>3.) Things where you can refer them to others.</p>
<p>LOL, love #3!!!</p>
<p>Here are some average yearly malpractice insurance rates for certain specialties from a survey done in 1998. Remember, these can vary greatly depending on location, safety record, types of procedures performed, etc. Remember some if not most have doubled, tripled, and even quadruped since then.</p>
<p>Neurosurg: 54K
CT surgery: 31K
Ortho: 31K
OB/Gyn: 29K
Gen Surg: 25K
Colorectal: 21K
ENT: 20K
Urology: 15K
Radiology: 13K
Anesthesia: 13K
EM: 12K
Cardiology: 10K (includes non-interventional)
Pediatrics: 10K
Oncology: 10K
Rheum: 10K
GI: 9K
Optho: 9K
Fam Practice: 8K
Internal Med: 8K
Derm: 8K
Neurology: 6K
Pathology: 5K
Psych: 4K</p>
<p>^^^
Rape I tell ya.</p>
<p>Dang...EM is Emergency Medicine right?</p>
<p>
[quote]
1.) Anybody in CA.</p>
<p>2.) Things that deal with old people.</p>
<p>3.) Things where you can refer them to others.
[/quote]
</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Agree. California's cap (MICRA) on non-economic damages has been very effective.</p></li>
<li><p>Perhaps, but many geriatric patients suffer maladies requiring neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and cancer diagnosis, so substantial liability exposure remains. OB liability is probably the only clear cut reduction. Pediatric damage awards tend to be larger than adult damage awards, so a geriatric practice might have less exposure.</p></li>
<li><p>Probably not, as failing to refer is a major cause of action. When a generalist fails to refer a problem to a specialist, the generalist may be held to the practice standards of the specialist rather than to those of a generalist.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As ASMJ noted, liability premiums for many specialties have increased dramatically since 1998. See the 2003 paper for a good discussion of MICRA and its effects of premiums: <a href="http://server.iii.org/yy_obj_data/binary/729103_1_0/Medmal.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://server.iii.org/yy_obj_data/binary/729103_1_0/Medmal.pdf</a></p>