Notes on patient compensation system suggestion reply

Abstract

We have read with great interest the letter to the editor entitled “An alternative malpractice system suggestion for Turkey: Patient compensation system” by Olcay et al. (1) that was published in Anatolian J Cardiol 2015; 15: 775-6. It is our opinion that the patient compensation system (PCS) that was proposed to prevent healthcare staff burnout, defensive medical practices, and increased healthcare expenditures at first appears convenient in general terms. According to our previous study in which judicial issues experienced by emergency physicians were examined, we determined that 57.8% of emergency physicians were complained to patient communication units and 14.2% of them were sued for medical malpractice. Furthermore, we observed that clinical decisions of 41.5% of emergency physicians were affected by previously experienced judicial and administrative inquiries (2). With respect to these studies, we believe that some legal points need to be considered while designing PCS, which is deemed beneficial to conduct healthcare services.