The Personality Factor in Medical Liability

Abstract

Mark Gorney, MD serves on the Board of Governors of The Doctors’ Company of California, the nation's largest doctor-owned malpractice insurance company. He also serves as chairman of the company's Risk Management Committee and is Consulting Medical Director. When I was in medical school, longer ago than I care to admit, a popular (if somewhat cynical) theory among the students was that the top third of the class make the best researchers and professors, the middle third the best clinicians, and the bottom third the most money. In other words, the bottom third would probably have the busiest practices. As I look back over the years and consider my own class experience, I find the theory reasonably accurate. I also find it applicable to the residents in plastic surgery whom I have helped train during the last three decades. Seen from a slightly different perspective, the corollary to this theory is that you do not necessarily have to be a brilliant scholar to be a highly successful surgeon. As I look at some of my high-profile friends, I am struck by certain personality characteristics that the most successful among them have in common—that odd combination of charm, sensitivity, and warmth often referred to as “bedside manner.” Unquestionably, competence is the ultimate criterion of success in our craft, but I have seen any number of situations in which the surgical result was frankly poor, yet no claim was filed. …