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Linking Patient Complaints and Malpractice Risk

William M. Sage, MD,JD

JAMA. 2002;287:3003-3005.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The quintessential service business can be identified by a sign mounted prominently behind the counter proclaiming that "The Customer Is Always Right." Despite the lip service paid these days to consumer sovereignty and patient autonomy, however, it is hard to imagine a similar placard in a hospital or doctor's office reading "The Patient Is Always Right."

Consider medical error. For decades, error has been addressed primarily through malpractice litigation, the availability of which often depends on the lobbying muscle brought to bear by organized medicine, on one side, and the trial bar, on the other. Whether in the courts or the legislatures, patients rarely speak, but are spoken for. Following the publication in 1999 of the Institute of Medicine's report, To Err Is Human, it has become fashionable to think of error prevention as a cooperative, system-based pursuit of improvement rather than the identification and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliation: Columbia Law School, New York, NY.

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