Injury Insight Podcast

Takeaways

• Doctors who commit medical malpractice are unlikely to go to jail unless it involves criminal acts.
• Consequences for doctors who commit malpractice include a loss of reputation, financial damages, and increased insurance rates.
• Disciplinary action within the hospital and potential license revocation or suspension are rare but possible.
• Doctors may apologize to patients as a strategy to prevent lawsuits.
• Doctors will be held accountable for their actions.

Chapters

• 00:00 Consequences of Medical Malpractice for Doctors
• 02:16 The Impact on a Doctor’s Reputation
• 02:44 Financial Consequences for Doctors
• 03:12 Disciplinary Action and License Revocation
• 04:12 The Strategy of Apologizing to Patients
• 05:13 Holding Doctors Accountable

Transcript

(00:01.422)
Welcome to Injury Insight, the podcast that unravels the stories behind personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits, examines the science behind the claims, and spotlights the fight for justice in the healthcare system. Your host for the podcast is Mike Duffy, a practicing attorney with over 25 years of experience.

(00:51.31)
Today we’re going to talk about what happens to a doctor who commits medical malpractice. We get clients that come in that want everything. They want the doctor to go to jail. They want the doctor to give up their license. They want financial damages. There are some things that are going to happen and there are some things that are not going to happen. Absent the most extreme circumstances, the doctor is not going to jail.

not for committing a negligent act. This may sound as the person who’s been injured inappropriate or wrong, but if everybody went to jail for their negligent acts, we’d all be in jail. The reality is that doctors are not going to go to jail for negligent acts. Criminal acts, they will go to jail for if a doctor assaults you or if a doctor intentionally causes you harm.

well then that doctor may well go to jail. There are cases that are going on right now involving doctors who committed sexual assault on patients. Those doctors are not only going to be paying costs, those doctors are going to go to jail. But what is going to happen? That’s what’s not going to happen. What is going to happen? Well, a doctor who commits malpractice, first of all, if it’s proven, is going to suffer a loss of reputation.

among his peers or her peers is going to have to acknowledge to those peers that they commit something wrong. A doctor who commits malpractice is going to pay financial damages. Every doctor is going to be insured, or at least most doctors are going to be insured, for their negligent acts and malpractice cases. And the insurance company is going to suffer the greater financial loss when they have to pay out the claim.

But the doctor’s insurance rates are going to go up, their premiums are going to go up, their ability to get insurance is going to become more difficult. So that’s certainly going to impact them. In very, very, very rare circumstances, a doctor who does not have insurance or has insufficient insurance may have to pay money out of that doctor’s pocket. New York protects these doctors tremendously. So it’s very rare that that happens, but in theory it could.

(03:12.544)
A doctor who commits malpractice may face disciplinary action within their hospital. There are inter -hospital or inter -medical provider conferences that take place and hearings that take place if a doctor has committed malpractice. These are called morbidity and mortality conferences where a doctor will have to stand up and explain the care that they rendered and how that care impacted their patient and whether it met the standard of care. These are not

conferences or meeting or minutes of conferences that we as Attorneys or you as a patient are going to be able to get we’re not going to be able to see what they said Largely because they’re used for education purposes the idea is that other doctors won’t commit the malpractice if a doctor is free to be upfront and honest about that one sneaky little thing that may happen is that a doctor may be encouraged to apologize to their patients

There’s a very good reason for this. It is not because they are sorry. It is because a few years ago, the Department of Veteran Affairs did a study and made the determination that if a doctor apologizes for committing medical acts, patients are vastly less inclined to actually sue the doctor. So in essence, it’s just an act to get you to say that you’re not going to sue them. But they may apologize. If they do, let us know.

And the last thing is that the Department of Health or the Department of Education, which licenses doctors or provides the license to doctors, may, in very rare circumstances, discipline the doctor by loss of license or by suspension of license. This is very rare indeed. In fact, we had one case where a doctor committed so much malpractice that the Department of Health did an investigation and made the determination that he just needed to take more insurance.

In essence, the Department of Health said, we know you’re going to hurt people and you can keep doing it, just have more insurance. So the Department of Health is not your friend. So in essence, the things that are not going to happen to a doctor are jail, loss of license, suspension of license, loss of their home. These things are almost certainly not going to happen to a doctor. What is going to happen to a doctor if you call Duffy and Duffy is that they’re going to be held accountable for their actions.

(05:45.774)
This podcast is for entertainment and educational information only. Nothing said here should be construed as constituting legal advice, nor does it imply any relationship between the listener and Duffy and Duffy law. If you have any questions about a personal injury or medical malpractice issue you are facing and want to see if you have a case, please contact Duffy and Duffy to schedule a confidential consultation. You can call us at 516 -259 -3775.

or email Mike Duffy at mduffy@duffyduffylaw.com and we’ll get back to you quickly.