A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation

by Paul C. Weiler and Joseph P. Newhouse

Book Overview

A Measure of Malpractice tells the story and presents the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the largest and most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of the performance of the medical malpractice system. The Harvard study was commissioned by the government of New York in 1986, in the midst of a malpractice crisis that had driven insurance premiums for surgeons and obstetricians in New York City to nearly $200,000 a year...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674558804
• ISBN13: 9780674558809
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The empirical research that tort law needs

For me as a European law professor this - admittedly somewhat outdated book - was very helpful in many respects: it showed me how thorough research on the tort process and its shortcomings is performed and it also convinced me that medical malpractice is quite different from say automobile accidents as far as the role of tort law is concerned. I think that this is a good book to read for anyone studying the tort process and evaluating the arguments for and against alternative patient insurance arrangements. I was a bit disappointed by the final chapter ('Ruminations for the future'), because the policy statements and suggestions for reform in that chapter are in my opinion not really firmly backed by the empirical evidence of the previous chapters.