The landscape of obstetric care has changed over the years due to the increase in litigation and medical malpractice outcomes that have cost providers and healthcare systems millions of dollars. In a state like Maryland where there are some of the largest hospitals in the country that service thousands of women, many of whom are from communities that have been underserved and under-serviced, there is a ripe opportunity for miscommunication and poor outcomes that oftentimes lead to litigation. As much as the cost of medical malpractice has weighed down the providers and organizations that care for women at such a crucial point in their lives, these patients have not walked away unscathed.
The bridge that needs to be built between the providers and the patients that they serve has to be forged on honesty, transparency, and a systematic option to get to the truth. The reason why most patients sue is that they could not get a clear answer as to what happened to them or their family member, or they are left with a disability that will cost them for the rest of their life.
Many of the issues that cause litigation stems from poor or defensive documentation or notes that were placed in the chart that implicates that the incident that occurred did not meet the standard of care. Data has shown that some of the issues in maternal health outcomes are directly related to the implicit bias that occurs in provider-patient interactions. Assumptions are made, questions are ignored, and a patient who does not have a perfect outcome now wants someone to pay for the pain that they had to endure or the loss that may have occurred.
The issue of birth professionals and liability is layered under so many other issues which we discussed in the Your Birth Partners podcast entitled Birth Professionals and Liability. When you being to peel back the layers that have caused the rise in litigation and litigation costs, you will see that neither the provider nor the patient is fully to blame. You begin to understand that the pressure that providers endure to have perfect outcomes in imperfect situations, and what patients are enduring in a strained and stressed system that continues to fail when taking care of Black, Brown, and Indigenous women. Listen to the podcast to learn more and stay tuned for the second episode. The conversation gets deep and it forces us all to reflect and become more conscious of how we move as practitioners and how we engage with the patients we serve.
Check out the various links in this article to learn more and to find various resources that can help you as a patient or provider. You can see more of my weekly talks here and learn more about me and my practice on my website.