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 with resultant damages to the plaintiff 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 often incorporate a significant dimension of defensive medicine into their practice.
According to Spath (2009) defensive medicine consists of 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 interventions are medically unnecessary interventions carried out in the physician’s office and paid for by patients or third party payers even though they have limited if any real value. In fact there may be no bona fide medical reason for the intervention other than fear of a potential lawsuit at a later date.
Some of these additional procedures and return visits to the doctor including writing prescriptions have become a significant source of income to the physician practicing defensive medicine. They drive up health care costs, may cause needless harm to the patient, and quite often are unnecessary. This paper will attempt to explore whether or not the practice of defensive medicine is also an unethical physician behavior.
