Justice is best served by jury trials
As an attorney who has defended physicians in malpractice cases for over 32 years, I read with interest your editorial, "Why health courts could pick up steam" [Jan. 4]. I've tried to verdict over 200 medical malpractice jury trials and won over 90 percent of them. It's my opinion
that if the same cases had been tried before health courts, the number of plaintiff's verdicts would have been much higher.
For years, the malpractice defense bar in Ohio has aggressively defended questionable cases, rather than settle to "avoid
the risk." This strategy would not have worked without the courageous physicians who took time from their practices to participate
in trials, some of which lasted for three or four weeks. They reaped the benefit of seeing medical malpractice filings in
Ohio decline over 50 percent in the past three years. I don't believe this would have been achieved had we abandoned the jury
system for health courts.
The possibility of a multimillion-dollar plaintiff's verdict raises anxiety and fear among doctor defendants and motivates
legislators to seek alternative forms to jury trials. What they overlook, however, is that for every plaintiff's verdict,
juries turn away plaintiffs 13 to 15 times. In other words, people who question the jury system are drawing conclusions from
the anomalies, rather than on whether, over the long haul, justice is achieved through jury trials. I believe health courts would work to the detriment of the medical profession, which is served beautifully, fairly, and justly
by adherence to the Seventh Amendment, the right to trial by jury.
Michael F. Lyon, JD
Cincinnati
A spouse's place is in the office
In your February 1 "Readers React"column, a practice manager wrote that a physician's spouse should never be involved in a doctor's practice. I'd like to present
another point of view.
My husband is a gifted, double-board-certified, interventional cardiologist. He loves what he does, is in high demand, and
is very busy. When I took over his practice as managing director, his hard work was not yielding him a commensurate benefit.
I have no medical background whatsoever, but I am an engineer who has optimized poorly functioning heavy-industry manufacturing
companies. Within one year I was able to double collections with the doctor working less. I put in electronic medical records, analyzed and optimized work flow, changed all protocols—not to mention ineffective
staff—and fully integrated the practice electronically. I selected and financed almost $500,000 of state-of-the-art equipment
by analyzing the financial return the way one does for all industrial equipment—all this while offering the staff 100 percent
paid medical, dental, vision, and gap insurance, and putting in a 401(k) with profit sharing.
The letter-writer's narrow perspective is self-limiting and destructive, as it perpetuates a negative stereotype. I had to
work hard to win the confidence of our staff since my predecessor had warned them that "the doctor's wife has no place in
the practice," but it has been well worth the effort.
Alisa Jost
Managing director
Mesa, AZ
