Who says there’s no defensive medicine? There’s always a fun discussion of such at the comments section of Kevin MD. One doctor:

I do that all the time. I tell my patients: “I don’t think you need a CT scan, but I’ll recommend it for liability purposes”.

Or “I don’t think you’re having a heart attack, but because of liability purposes, I recommend going to the ER”.

And another, who thinks the first isn’t being defensive enough to avoid litigation:

You’ve got to be careful how you word “I don’t think you’re having a heart attack”. On our AMA forms, it’s very specific: “You are at risk of death” if you don’t follow our recommendations. On the inside I know it’s alot of crap, that there’s nothing wrong with the patient, but I have only a million of coverage to back me up on this, so on the outside, I have to act like it’s a life or death situation they are admitted for their bogus chest pain.

Then a third chimes in to say that the second is fooling himself:

I’ve actually had a malpractice lawyer laugh and tell me how easily he can blow through an AMA form in court like it’s not even there, so even that doesn’t protect us against the sharks.

Filed under: medical