Preventative Medicine

Its election time folks and once again we are hearing the reverberations of the myth known as tort reform echo through the state. Without broaching the utter myth and lies associated with those promoting tort reform, I thought I would delve into one specific area in which doctors and those promoting such reforms like to use as a talking point. That issue is the fact that doctors feel they have to practice preventative medicine because of their fear of a lawsuit.

Now before I begin, think about it, doctors are complaining that they have to practice “preventative medicine.” Those of us with children all the time here about preventive vaccines. Those of us with a history of heart disease hear all the time about preventive measures such as eating habits. However, doctors for some reason when treating patients want to use the fact that because of a fear of lawsuits they have to order a MRI or some other diagnostic test to confirm their thoughts and in some cases, their findings. How can this be a bad thing? What would happen if a doctor didn’t do the MRI and stomach pain they attributed to gall stones was actually a tumor.

Essentially, there is nothing wrong with preventative medicine and if it takes the fear of lawsuits to get doctors to protect patients with thorough care, then those lawsuits are doing society and individuals a favor.