[MalcolmS]

Number of physicians in the US - 700,000 Accidental deaths caused per year - 120,000 Accidental deaths/physician = 0.171

How many people does the average Doctor see in a year?

At current HMO requirements, I would guess one every ten minutes, fifty hours per week, for a total of 15,600 per year. Not including the fact that many of these cases are terminal no matter what, that working conditions and resources are restricted, that works out to an error rate of 1 in 91,228. Another way of looking at the number is that the average doctor goes 1/.171 = 5.84 years on average before making a fatal mistake.

Personally, I think I'm doing well if I go 5.84 years in my job without making a mistake! Be glad doctors aren't journalists, who can't seem to go 5.84 column inches without making a fatal mistake. We can't hold medical professionals to a standard that is impossible to keep, punishing them financially when they cannot achieve the impossible. I personally think this type of error rate is fantastic in such a very human, often confusing field.

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I'm glad those who are doctors are persisting in the face of this nonsense. I would have given up long ago. It's already virtually impossible to get an OB in Florida, as insurance rates are $250,000 per year.

The looters and lawyers are at the hospital gates. Paging Dr. Galt, Dr. Jonathon Galt.

[Beck_isright]

The problem is not the "good" doctors. The problem is that 4-5% which have created this nightmare are not losing their right to practice. Same for lawyers. Get rid of the problems instead of spreading the financial risks to all doctors and lawyers.

[TaxRelief]

So, you think we should build a mistake allowance into the equation? Say, if a doctor makes a catastrophic mistake, but it has been 5.84 years since he made any mistakes, then the lawsuit should be dismissed?

[Polybius]

Personally, I think I'm doing well if I go 5.84 years in my job without making a mistake! Be glad doctors aren't journalists, who can't seem to go 5.84 column inches without making a fatal mistake. We can't hold medical professionals to a standard that is impossible to keep, punishing them financially when they cannot achieve the impossible.

Sure you can. It was done in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Yeah, sure, the doctors packed up and moved out of Nevada, Las Vega's trauma hospitals are out of business and a woman in Las Vegas doeas have to drive to Utah to find an obstetrician to deliver her baby but the fact remains that you can do that! < /sarcasm>