Medical Error: An Epidemic Compounded by Gag Laws

August 17, 2022

(STAT News) – Covid-19 turned hospitals into battlefields. Wards burst at the seams, caregivers died in the thousands, staff burnout and compassion fatigue spiked as clinicians cared for critically ill patients — many of whom had declined vaccination. To one of us (A.D.), who has worked as a physician during the AIDS epidemic, in Nicaraguan war zones, at Ground Zero on 9/11, and during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Covid-19 has pulsed more fear than those scenarios combined. Dire as it has been, the pandemic brought an unexpected paradigm shift: States, including New York, where we work, suspended malpractice liability. Doctors could say aloud, “I think this treatment hurt my patient” without shame or fear. (Read More)