Tons of stories have been published about how sloppy care and treatment in hospitals has led to serious medical complications and even death. About 100,000 people die each year in hospitals because of medical mistakes. More than half of people who have been in hospitals recently are unhappy with the quality of health care they received. Yet, only one in nine people sue when something happens. Many just go away quietly. But research shows that people would rather trust the system and the doctors who treat them instead of suing the doctor or hospital. People know that doctors are not perfect and they make mistakes. In fact, patients are more appreciative when doctors come clean about what went wrong, according to research from the Wall Street Journal. What the public really wants is medical information, or “report cards,” about doctors and hospitals. The medical industry is frightened to no end by report cards, but there are lots of moves coming from corporate America to get them published and accessible. When it happens, you will be able to see how a particular facility has performed. Clark thinks we need to do something to help allay peoples’ fears. Doctors who fess up when they mess up help quite a bit, and we’d all be better off if that happened. But there are moves taking shape around the country to impose extreme non-economic damage caps. Doctors want to cap damages at a quarter of a million dollars. Clark sees that figure as too arbitrary, but he thinks there should be some cap that makes sense. Doctors should no longer be scared to treat people because their malpractice costs are too high, and patients should no longer be afraid to go to the hospital. Hopefully we can reach that goal.