Hacker News Reader

It's not just about the labor, it's also about the liability and risk mitigation. Most diagnosis and treatment decisions are made by the doctor because they typically face the consequences if they are wrong.

View on HN

You can blame US law for that. Why not treat them like a prosecutor once they've reached a certain expertise or status? It keeps them from any absurd liability because it's guarded by the state. I'd like to ask why doctor is going to intentionally put someones life at risk cause they're lazy? Sure you'll find some in government work, but if it's government, they'll easily have oversight.

They can also blame themselves. My partner was a healthcare worker (medical surgical) named in several lawsuits because someone on their floor fucked up and now some person is suffering. It's expensive to care for someone whose been disabled due to malpractice, so suing for even nominal damages is going to be expensive.

People make mistakes and sometimes they are deadly. This doesn't just happen to "lazy" doctors. If someone could die every time you introduced a bug, you still couldn't write bug free code.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com