--- Michael Dawson <mdawson at pdx.edu> wrote:
> >in Doug's example, the hospital was punished to the tune of $250k
>
> In Doug's example, that means a middle-aged human being has been
> robbed of
> life, and that, for unimaginable pain and suffering, gets maybe
> $10,000-$15,000 a year. Might pay your rent in a modest house in a
> modest
> town -- maybe. That's simply nowhere near enough, even if we had a
> decent
> system of health insurance and doctor pay.
It goes further than that. Now that the tort law has capped damages at $250k here in Tex-ass, it's much easier for hospitals to justify their patient care cuts and factor the lawsuits into their budget. Some punishment, indeed.
A typical example of this practice, which I've seen explained in Texas med-mal depositions and health care professionals here goes like this: The hospital weighs the cost of havin X number of full-time specialized nurses and therapists against the costs of having a reduced staff while inpatient care demand goes up against the projected cost of potential litigation not covered by insurance and then "budget" accordingly, deciding how big of a risk they were willing to take. BEFORE the Texas reform of tort law, this was, surprisingly, a common but risky logic and patient services were compromised accordingly. The new law takes a lot of the guesswork away.
- Deborah