The Search for Strategies to Reduce Medical Error

Abstract

This essay is based on a book review of Closing Death’s Door: Legal Innovations to End the Epidemic of Healthcare Harm, by Michael J. Saks and Stephan Landsman. The book examines in precise detail the empirical evidence and policy dimensions of strategies for reducing medical error—both through analysis of data on medical malpractice litigation, and more centrally, through the organizational lens of the provision of medical care in the healthcare system.

In this essay, my perspective is to locate the authors’ illuminating findings in broader tort and regulatory perspectives on compensation and deterrence for medical harm.