Medical catastrophe

Unnecessary death rarely happens at the hands of doctors, but it does happen. Sometimes the cause is medical error. But sometimes the cause is politics. The issues underlying many medical catastrophes are numerous: a power struggle between providers, uncertainty over who?s in charge, hesitation to practice good medicine for fear of being fired, specialization run amok, part-time doctoring. Doctors often prefer to ignore the problems, but patient safety demands that they be aired.