Death by Good Intentions begins at a hospital where a man is rushed into surgery after coming through the ER. Shortly after the surgery is successfully completed, the man dies of a heart attack inexplicably and Quincy (Jack Klugman) conducts the autopsy. His findings determine that the patient died as result of errors in treatment by the hospital staff, but no one can pinpoint exactly who was responsible. Most of the suspicion falls on a young African-American doctor working in the ER who initially treated the patient and this leads to his suspension. To further complicate matters, this doctor was hired through an affirmative action program which may be in jeopardy if he is responsible for the patient's death, but Quincy suspects that there might be more to the death than doctor error.
I would characterize this as a fair Season 4 episode that does feature a murder mystery along with a social cause. The problem I have with it is that the social cause seems to be much more in the forefront than the actual murder which seems pretty backwards. Granted, it does take some time for Quincy and crew to determine that a murder has taken place in this episode, but it just seemed like way too much time time was spent on the affirmative action program issues which ended up having nothing to do with the crime. I also thought the plot was very similar to that of the Season 3 episode Valleyview which also featured an angel of death type story, so it is not very original.
There are some Quincy episodes that do a great job of blending a murder mystery plot in along with a social cause, but I wouldn't say that this is one of them.