「告」與「不告」之間－臺灣醫療糾紛病患及其家屬之行動分析

本研究以紮根理論研究法探究病患及其家屬處理醫療糾紛之行動，並以深度訪談法收集十四例醫療糾紛病患及其家屬之經驗。研究結果包括：（一）病患及其家屬將採行法律機制視為行動的分界點，「先協商，後（或不）法律」為病患及其家屬處理醫療糾紛的行動類型；（二）病患及其家屬考量採取法律途徑與否的行動邏輯包含「期待醫方善意回應」、「對醫療疏失和處理方式的瞭解程度」、「訴訟成本」、傳統文化「留全屍」觀念、「其他家屬意見」，以及「地方人際壓力」等；（三）病患及其家屬嘗試藉由常民知識、人際互動禮儀、社會網絡、法律訴訟等策略匯集能量、挑戰主流權威知識，彰顯病患主體的能動性，即便影響力有限。最後，建議未來應建立「法律互助組織」做為充權病人的基礎。

關鍵字

醫療糾紛；紮根理論；訴訟成本；法律互助組織

並列摘要

This study is based on the grounded theory to explore the actions of the patients and their family involved in a medical malpractice situation. The findings include: (1) adoption of legal mechanism seen as a 'switch' to act for the patients and their families; their approach for dealing with medical malpractice was 'negotiation first, law second'; (2) the action logic in relation to adoption of legal mechanism included 'expectation of good response from hospital', 'the extent of understanding of medical malpractice and its settlement procedure', 'litigation cost', 'the traditional perspective of keeping whole body', 'families' opinions' and 'pressure from local key persons'; (3) the patients and their families tried to integrate all of their resources to challenge the mainstream authority perspective so as to manifest 〞the patient as an agent〞 by means of common sense, manners of interpersonal interaction, social network, and law litigation in spite of recognizing the limited influences. At last, this study suggests that a 'Legal Co-operative Association' is required to serve as a base for empowering the patients.