Gydytojų aplaidumu padarytos žalos atlyginimo institutas
Medical Malpractice: Lithuania and the USA

Summary/Abstract: “Medical Malpractice: The Legal Concept of Recompense for Damages Caused by a Physician’s Negligence in Lithuania and the USA” Abstract In Lithuania, even during the Soviet occupation, it was always possible to sue a physician for medical malpractice – in theory; practically this was never done and only now is it becoming a real possibility. The article analyses what the possibility to be compensated for a physician’s negligence actually means in a legal, economical and sociological sense. Does it compel the physician to act in a more careful manner? Or does it simply allow the legal system to feel itself more just and fair in the sense that it provides the possibility for the injured persons to be compensated? Does it raise the quality of medical services? The authors base their investigations mainly on the model of the United States; they present the history of this model in that country. They also compare the contemporaneous legal approach to medical malpractice in the USA with that in Lithuania. They present an analysis of an incident of medical malpractice that had been described in Lithuanian newspapers from the point of view of the model of the United States. Another aspect discussed in the article is that in the United States physicians perceive that the risk to be sued in court is much bigger than it actually is. It makes them use some kind of preventive tactics and this is thought to improve the relationship between the patient and the physician. On the other hand, in Lithuania, physicians are reluctant to insure themselves and this leads to the conclusion than in Lithuania physicians are much less afraid to be sued in the courts than in the USA. The authors go further and conclude that, therefore, it is possible that physicians in Lithuania look at the possible consequences of their behavior more carelessly than their colleagues in the USA do. (...)

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