As was recently posted on our blog, I had the privilege of co-editing the recent update of what is believed to be one of the only, if not the only, state specific deskbook dedicated to medical negligence law.

With 6 years passing from the original deskbook edition and this second edition, writing the foreword allowed me to reflect on the larger changes to the landscape of medical negligence litigation in the last half decade.

I noted two seemingly connected trends, one which continued on through the current pandemic, and one that decidedly did not.

First, I noted the trend of dwindling numbers of small, independent practices, being gobbled up by large health care institutions. Even more, large health care institutions continued to be gobbled up by even bigger health care organizations.

By way of examples, in King County patients now typically get to choose between either a UW-affiliated provider, OR a Providence/Swedish-affiliated provider. In Pierce and Kitsap, and even into King, CHI Franciscan (now part of CommonSpirit Health) has been absorbing hospitals and clinics, with Multicare as its principal competition. North and South of the greater Puget Sound area, Providence reigns before giving way to PeaceHealth territory closer to our northern and southern borders. In Spokane, the choice is between Providence and Multicare.

This trend has brought with it, from my perspective, a general increase in patients’ dissatisfaction with the medical care experience. Waiting too long to get appointments, waiting too long for the appointments, and spending too little time with the doctor (or more frequently, a midlevel provider such as a PA or ARNP).

Concurrently, at least pre-pandemic, the public’s impression of medical doctors’ honesty and ethical standards trended downward, from 70% of the public rating these standards as high in 2012, down to 65% in 2019.

Then the pandemic hit. We were “at war” with a scary, deadly virus, and our health care providers were at the “front line”. Suddenly, public perception of the honesty and ethics of doctors shot up: in 2020, 77% of polled citizens felt physician standards in this regard were high.

Bringing claims alleging medical negligence continue to be challenging, particularly in the current climate. But we continue to be able to assist victims of negligent medical care, and that continues to be a meaningful check on the quality of care provided in our State.