Significant Health Care Event

Significant Health Care Event
HCS/531

Significant Health Care Event
Health care is influenced by a number of significant events. According to (Shi & Singh, 2012, p. 9) some of the influences are society, culture, politics, religion, technology, health trends, environment and population. I will discuss a significant event that changed health care or affects health care today.  
Excessive litigation is a significant event the affects health care. Litigation is popular because of the advertisements shown on television, Internet, and radio against pharmacies, health facilities, and other professionals. Lawyers are specializing in heath care case involving specific medicines or conditions. As a result some health care facilities will close or some health care providers lose his or her license to practice medicine. Litigation causes a financial burden that increases the cost of malpractice insurance, health insurance premium, and costs for implementing new medical procedures to avoid litigation. Medical professions always face the risk of the negligence rule of liability. Patients have to prove that the physician failed to provide the proper medical attention (Cantino, 2004).
Physicians have been known to provide defensive medicine, which increase the cost of healthcare and patients are at risk. A defensive medicine involves physicians or nurses ordering treatments that are not necessary. The practice of defensive medicine can cost two and one half times the cost and an estimated savings in tort reform is passing 50 billion dollars (Santiani, 2004). The amount of money spent on health care can be used to improve health care by developing efforts such as preventative care, research, prescription drugs, or insurance for the uninsured. The increased cost of litigation results is an increase in malpractice insurance to reduce the loss in the litigation process.
These factors are significant and have a negative effect on health care delivery because it takes away...