Pubdate: Thu, 27 Feb 2003
Source: Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Copyright: 2003 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Author: James E. Sanderson Jr., president of United Steelworkers of America 
Local 7898
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

APPLY METHODS TO MEDICAL MALPRACTICE SUITS

Mothers Against Drunk Driving was organized to deal with the problem of 
drunken drivers. I think the time has now come for MADD to expand its 
mission to include a subcommittee that would work not only to save lives 
but also help to lower the cost of insurance for many individuals. MADD 
could also stand for Mothers Against Drugged Doctors. Should the 
aforementioned statement offend any of our local, state or national 
doctors, then those offended must be guilty.

Doctors are striking over the high cost of malpractice insurance instead of 
focusing on the real reason for the increasing cost of the insurance. The 
president is calling for Congress to impose federal restrictions on 
malpractice cases, claiming that a "broken" medical liability system is 
driving away doctors and straining the cost and availability of health 
care. He has stated that rising costs of malpractice insurance and large 
jury awards are a national problem and cannot be addressed solely by the 
states. The president has urged lawmakers to limit the amount that patients 
can be awarded if they are injured by doctors and hospitals to $250,000 
when there are noneconomic damages, and an unspecified cap on punitive awards.

South Carolina could solely address this issue. S.C. lawmakers could do the 
same thing they did to address the issue of drunken drivers. Do you think 
that drunken drivers should be able to protest the high cost of their SR-22 
insurance because they have a hard time paying their premiums? This is 
exactly what the doctors are doing. The state could have said what our 
president is saying now: "Let's put a cap on what injured people can 
receive when they are involved in an injury caused by a drunken driver." 
Instead, legislators passed legislation aimed at the problem.

Our president and other leaders have not been addressing the real problem 
for the continuing high cost of malpractice insurance; they are only 
addressing the solution. It is more critical to address the problem in 
order to help lower the high cost of medical malpractice insurance.

All hospitals should be required to have in place a drug and alcohol policy 
for everyone who works at the hospital, including the doctors, nurses, 
administrators, etc., to be administered by an independent firm. Then, 
annually, without identifying any individuals, a report should be filed 
with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and made public.

Malpractice insurance should not be issued to any hospital that fails to 
implement a drug and alcohol policy.

The juries who have been awarding these lawsuits to patients have done so 
after hearing the testimony and facts that were presented by trial lawyers. 
Can you imagine what it would be like if we did not have caring, competent 
and compassionate lawyers standing up for maimed people butchered by some 
drug-addicted so-called doctor?

All hospitals should be required to have policies to discipline any doctor 
for testing positive for alcohol or drugs. If the doctor is not 
rehabilitated, then he or she should lose his or her license to practice 
just like a drunken driver would lose his or her license to drive.

Why have the hospitals and doctors not addressed the problem? It appears 
that the only issue hospitals and doctors care about is the high cost of 
malpractice insurance. Surely the hospitals and doctors can understand why 
the cost is high.

If requiring drug tests would help lower the costs of insurance, can anyone 
explain why this has not already been implemented at these hospitals? Maybe 
we should look at eliminating all drug tests in the United States of 
America. If the tests are not satisfactory for our medical professionals, 
then perhaps the question is whether or not the tests should be used in any 
other areas of our society for the determination of responsibility.

The writer, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 7898, lives 
in Georgetown.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl