The risk management of infections

Unfortunately, risk management, that is avoiding lawsuits, is a retro-active pastime instead of being pro-active. What this means is that we often take action only after a problem has manifested itself, rather than identifying potential problems and correcting them. This is, however, only human nature and occurs in most other walks of life. In dental malpractice, what appears to have been happening during the past few years in California is that plaintiff's lawyers have identified a problem and then started to sue dentists for it (and even run courses on how to sue dentists for it!), after which the profession has tried to take steps to identify the cause of the problem, and has then attempted to reduce it or eliminate it altogether. In the past, the dental malpractice companies (the equivalent of the Medical Protection Society and Medical Defense Union) were merely bystanders who paid out on claims and subsequently raised premiums accordingly. Now that most of the malpractice companies in California are actually run by (and often owned by) members of the profession, they are much more interested in getting involved at a very early stage, as soon as a potential problem is identified, in order to take action so that premiums do not rise unnecessarily.