Defensive medicine in Europe: a ‘full circle’?

Integrated Care in Europe: Time to Get it Together?

“…All initiatives encouraging healthcare providers to compete are likely to discourage IC [1,26]. Furthermore, activity-based funding through arbitrarily fixed tariffs for services can only lead to distortions in allocating financial resources and ultimately undermine IC, discouraging coordination and synergies among providers [27].…”

Do European pharmacists really have to trespass on medicine?

“…Yet, the right to prescribe implies legal responsibility in case of clinical errors that many European hospital pharmacists would not necessarily be pleased to accept. This may involve legal litigations for negative outcomes with patients and their relatives, especially in the present era of 'defensive medicine' [13], potentially inducing high legal costs for accountable professionals [14].…”

Is the perceived impact of disciplinary procedures on medical doctors’ professional practice associated with working in an open culture and feeling supported? A questionnaire among medical doctors in the Netherlands who have been disciplined

“…Over the years, several substantially similar and overlapping definitions of defensive medicine have been offered, holding that defensive medicine ‘includes all medical actions that physicians do without considering them the standard of care according to their clinical knowledge; these actions are meant to shield physicians from negligence or malpractice lawsuits filed by patients or their families’. 10 …”

“…European authors have adopted the concept and have recently begun to adapt it to apply to their respective legal cultures, which are often not as susceptible to medical liability claims as those in the USA. 10 11 Fear of loss of reputation, triggered by shame, and a social culture oriented to individual blame are identified as complementary triggers of defensive medicine. 10 A recent study by Assing Hvidt et al 12 into Danish general practitioners’ (GP) understanding of defensive medicine identified fear of external demands such as patient pressure, system pressure, the pressure to conform to evidence-based guidelines, peer pressure or even self-pressure, resulting from fear of harming the patient, as potential factors of defensive medicine.…”

“… 10 11 Fear of loss of reputation, triggered by shame, and a social culture oriented to individual blame are identified as complementary triggers of defensive medicine. 10 A recent study by Assing Hvidt et al 12 into Danish general practitioners’ (GP) understanding of defensive medicine identified fear of external demands such as patient pressure, system pressure, the pressure to conform to evidence-based guidelines, peer pressure or even self-pressure, resulting from fear of harming the patient, as potential factors of defensive medicine. Assing Hvidt et al 12 consequently defined defensive medicine as ‘unnecessary and meaningless actions driven by external demands instead of a focus on the patient’s problem’.…”