Recent news coverage in Illinois has posed the question if bad doctors are the main cause behind the state’s current liability system crisis. Focusing solely on weeding out and disciplining bad doctors will do nothing to keep good doctors from leaving Illinois or attract future physicians to our state.

Without question, the overwhelming majority of us entered the medical profession to help people. Those physicians who are willfully negligent or knowingly compromise their patient’s care in any way must be disciplined. We do need a tough and fair disciplinary system in place to quickly deal with doctors who do wrong.

Even in the notorious Madison County, Illinois, only four of the 374 lawsuits filed against doctors since 1996 resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff; 208 of those cases were dismissed.

Much of the news coverage on this issue has illustrated the medical liability process through the eyes of the plaintiff. I’d like to share what it is like for the physicians on the receiving end of a malpractice lawsuit.

Under our current system, good physicians are punished from the moment a lawsuit is filed. As soon as a doctor learns he or she is being sued, the self-doubt begins to creep in. Did I do something wrong? Have I lost my edge? What else could I have done to help that patient? That cloud of self-doubt hangs over the physician’s head in every subsequent patient visit.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit must wind through the legal process. Months and even years can pass from the time a suit is filed, through the depositions and evidence gathering, until the suit ends in dismissal, settlement or verdict. During this time, physicians are bound by silence, unable to discuss the case with anyone. Rather than working through the issues with colleagues and support systems, the physician is left to deal with the internal strife and stress alone. He or she is stuck in limbo, often leading to anxiety and depression. It’s almost "guilty until proven innocent" rather than the opposite.

The angst and fear created by the constant threat of a potential lawsuit affects everything. Doctors no longer trust their training and their experience. Rather than gathering information and making a decision based on training, he or she may resort to ordering every test in the book to rule everything else out. The result is wasted time and wasted money on unnecessary processes. Our fears of the legal system create a perpetual cycle of waste spinning out of control – with more concern given to preventing lawsuits than helping our patients. These same fears of litigation are spilling over into many other services – such as law enforcement, education, business and government.

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the current liability system comes from the personal nature of the lawsuit. To win a medical malpractice case against a doctor, the plaintiff’s lawyer must ultimately make that doctor look incompetent, callous or careless. How can a physician sit on the other end of those accusations and not be personally affected by it? Even if the case is dismissed or the jury finds in the doctor’s favor – the damage is done.

Unfortunately, many times there is nothing more that a physician can do to "fix" a patient. We have access to amazing medical technologies, treatments and drugs. The possibilities for success may seem unlimited, but in truth, we are still very limited. Physicians gather facts, ask all the right questions and then use our training and instinct to form a diagnosis and a plan for treatment. We can utilize technology and tests to confirm our judgments. But sometimes, despite our training and our technology - we face problems that can’t be solved.

The concern of being sued over a bad outcome despite our best efforts leaves physicians constantly looking over their shoulders. Some of them finally just turn around and walk away from medicine entirely. We can’t afford to lose good doctors any more than we can afford to keep the bad ones.

We need answers that will protect and compensate patients, protect good doctors and foster improvements in health care. And that system must also discipline those who are willfully negligent. Anything less than this fundamental change, and ultimately patients will still be on the losing end.