Should a person inflict damages upon another person, he is also liable to also pay his medical bills, aside from the loss of productivity, pain and humiliation.  Our Gemara on amud aleph discusses a number of scenarios where the damager might seek to minimize his losses by economizing, such as offering to heal the person himself if he has the medical skills, or to use a friend who would provide the service as a courtesy. These cost cutting suggestions are rejected out of fear that this more “haimish” form of service will be of reduced quality. 

The Rosh (Hachovel, Siman Aleph) observes, “The person who is ill must feel a comforting presence from the healer.”  In other words, the bedside manner of the physician is important to the healing process. According to researcher Debra Roter ( Debra Roter, The Patient-Physician Relationship and its Implications for Malpractice Litigation, 9 J. Health Care L. & Pol'y 304 (2006). Available at:  http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/jhclp/vol9/iss2/7 ), there seems to be no correlation between malpractice claims and any retrospective measurement of clinical quality.  Meaning to say, malpractice claims seem to have little to do with the actual number of errors or other indicators of quality medical care. It appears that most claims do not come from the patient’s anger over the failed procedure, but rather frustration with the level of communication with the doctor. Post facto analysis shows that litigants often complained about not being properly warned, not having their questions answered and not being treated with respect.  Yet doctors who had better rapport and committed similar medical errors were not sued.  The patient may be likely to forgive poor treatment outcomes so long as they felt good with the doctor. Selecting from a random group of physicians whose conversations with patients were recorded, researchers found common factors and correlations:

“The sued doctors had shorter visits by almost three minutes, used less partnership-type exchanges (i.e., asking for the patient's opinion, understanding of what was said and expectations for the visit, showing interest in patient disclosures, and paraphrasing and interpreting what the patient said), engaged in less humor and laughter, and were less likely to orient the patients as to what to expect in regard to the flow of the visit than physicians who had never been sued.”

Additionally:

“Surgeons judged to have more dominant voice tone [in the recordings] were almost three times as likely to be in the sued group than others, while the surgeons whose voice tone was rated as conveying concern and anxiety were half as likely to be in the sued group.”

It is easy to hypothesize that subjective feelings of satisfaction stemming from a positive bedside manner, lead to improved medical outcomes.  The element of hope that comes from another person's concern and commitment, aside from a greater receptivity to the treatment, thus increasing compliance with various recommendations, is as significant a part of the treatment as the medicine itself. 

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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