SURPRISED? I WASN’T
So, I ran a little poll on LinkedIn. Ran it on a few different pages here. I asked, “What one word most accurately describes the standard of care in medicine? That is, for a medical malpractice case?” The options were: Best, Good, Average, and Worst.
The responses did not surprise me. Of course, “Average” is the correct answer, but that was not the response that many people chose. Why was I not surprised? Patients have this idea that their physicians must be darned near perfect. They developed that idea by watching TV shows (Marcus Welby – yes, I am that old… House for you younger folk), hearing drug company ads (miracle cures abound), and all the rest of the hype. Physicians are no better off in knowing that they only need to be average. They are given tests in medical school where there is one right answer, and all other answers are wrong. That mentality carries through to post graduate training and into practice. It leads to a perception that medicine should be practiced perfectly or darn close to it.
However, that is not what the law requires. The standard of care is what other reasonable physicians of like training and in the same circumstances would do. Oh, and as a side note of sorts, the standard of care is not determined in hind sight. It is determined at the time the care was provided. This last point cannot be overstressed.