Managing the Iatrogenic Risks of Risk Management
The modern medical community appears to accept iatrogenesis as a fact of life, and to work diligently to manage the risks of its own risk management measures.
Abstract
Introduction Risk management aims to protect, but many’s the slip betwixt help and health. Medical care is meant to make people well, but it can harm as it heals. This is the pervasive problem of “iatrogenic” (care-induced) and “nosocomial” (hospital-induced) injury.1 “Most treatments have side effects as well as benefits.”2 “Medical care is an inherently risky enterprise.”3 “[M]edical progress has provided physicians with an arsenal of double-edged swords.”4 The modern medical community appears, more or less, to accept iatrogenesis as a fact of life, and to work diligently to manage the risks of its own risk management measures.5