Physicians, Defensive Medicine and Ethics

Abstract

Medical malpractice is most often defined as professional negligence by act or omission by a provider of health services that deviates from acceptable norms.Physicians are faced with an epidemic of medical malpractice law suits that has forced them to change the way that they do business. In order to protect themselves from litigation, physicians have begun practicing defensive medicine. According to Spath (2009) defensive medicine is diagnostic or therapeutic interventions that are primarily used by the physician as protection against future medical malpractice law suits by the patient. Many of these medical unnecessary interventions are done in the physician's office and paid for even though they have limited if any real value. In fact there may be no real medical reason for the intervention other than fear of a lawsuit at a later date. These additional procedures and return visits to the doctor have also become a large source of income to the physician practicing defensive medicine. They drive up health care costs, may cause needless harm to the patient and are usually unnecessary. This paper will attempt to explore whether or not the practice of defensive medicine is also an unethical physician behavior.