Survey: Future of Health Care
The Doctors Company conducts surveys of our physician member base in order to gain a better understanding of today's practice environment. Our most recent survey, "Future of Health Care," was designed to help us gauge the effect the medical malpractice crisis is having on physicians of today and future generations. The data we gathered will arm us with powerful information for use in our medical-legal reform efforts. Some telling results from the survey include:
- 71% of doctors surveyed stated that the current medical malpractice climate impacted their willingness to encourage their children or other family members to enter the medical profession.
- Of the current physicians who are children of doctors, about two-thirds said they were encouraged by their parents to become physicians. That’s the same percentage of doctors today who would discourage their children from following a career in medicine, clearly a sign of a profession in crisis.
- The survey results illustrate that the fear of groundless malpractice lawsuits greatly reduces the quality of professional life for physicians and may be steering the best and brightest of tomorrow’s generation into other careers.
For additional results from the research project, please contact Stacy Schultz by
e-mail or by phone at (707) 226-0154.
