Medical Standards in 21 States Based on Local Rule, not National Standards

June 21, 2007

Although most patients don’t know it, 21 U.S. states follow some form of an 1880 ruling that says the standard of care physicians must meet by law depends on where the doctor practices, even if, in some cases, it is a small town with only two doctors. That means what is considered malpractice in some states may be considered acceptable practice in others, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. This “locality rule” can negatively impact both physicians and patients, and should be changed to the national, evidence-based standards of care that the 29 other states and the District of Columbia have now adopted as the basis for malpractice law, the researchers say in the June 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Science Daily)