To the Editor:
Attorney Ron Snow said, "We were found guilty of negligence for following a national guideline on how to treat this patient" ("DHMC lawyers appeal $1.8 million suit," Jan. 6).
The question might be posed as to whether the doctors should instead be competent to diagnose patients without needing a cookbook to go by.
Cookbook-style doctoring uses the excuse that doctors, on a committee miles away from a patient without ever knowing whom the patient is, know all that should be done to treat a patient. This, clearly, is bad practice that simply should not be allowed on an everyday basis. Patients today, as in the past, depend on doctors' discretion and perceptiveness as professionals to make conclusions about what they need to be healthy human beings.
It would seem to this reader that the judge did rule in favor of the professionalism at Dartmouth that we have a reputation for and against unprofessional practices.
