Another Salvo In The War On Doctors

From USA Today:

In fact, unnecessary surgeries might account for 10% to 20% of all operations in some specialties, including a wide range of cardiac procedures — not only stents, but also angioplasty and pacemaker implants — as well as many spinal surgeries. Knee replacements, hysterectomies, and cesarean sections are among the other surgical procedures performed more often than needed, according to a review of in-depth studies and data generated by both government and academic sources.

Since 2005, more than 1,000 doctors have made payments to settle or close malpractice claims in surgical cases that involved allegations of unnecessary or inappropriate procedures, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the U.S. government's National Practitioner Data Bank public use file, which tracks the suits. About half the doctors' payments involved allegations of serious permanent injury or death, and many of the cases involved multiple plaintiffs, suggesting many hundreds, if not thousands, of victims.

This is yet another salvo in a war being waged on the medical profession in this country. From the flawed statistical estimates of the IOM  report to bundled payments and pay for performance to the conflation of quality with cost to expansion of midlevel scope of practice to unfunded mandate by regulation, doctors' control over their own profession has suffered more beach erosion than the Rockaways after Sandy. Often, our organizations have been alternately befuddled, complicit and impotent. How could we have let this get so far out of hand? More importantly, what do we do about this going forward? Howard Beale's window beckons. It's time to open it.

Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.