Earlier this week, Michelle Andrews reported that "hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s." She also dug up a 1998 report that found "autopsy results showed that clinicians misdiagnosed the cause of death up to 40 percent of the time." Robin Hanson has a theory:
A pretty obvious explanation for fewer autopsies: docs don’t like being proven wrong. Such dislike can lead to lawsuits, and generally make docs look bad. … Could there be any clearer evidence that docs care more about getting paid than about healing patients, yet the public can’t bring itself to imagine docs are that selfish?
The Dish 