Congressional Republicans have recently revived discussions on Medical Malpractice – capping damages at $250,000 for certain kinds of injuries. A perennial argument of supporters of such measures is that many claims are frivolous, clogging the court system and driving up health care costs for everyone. But the evidence doesn’t necessarily support this. The New York Times recently […]
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There is always lots of talk about how the cost of healthcare is being driven up by the cost of medical malpractice lawsuits and their attendant cost on the system. Doctors frustrated by the situation have cited rising costs of malpractice insurance, insurance companies have blamed it for increasing rates, and facts have become increasingly […]
Read More...A Greedy Neurosurgeon in Michigan recently got 20 years in prison. Typically, surgical errors by physicians are unintentional. A misdiagnosis, misread study, or error during a surgical procedure can cause significant post-op problems, but few doctors set out to harm patients or perform unnecessary procedures. The case and conviction of Dr. Aria Sabit, of Michigan and California, is […]
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Five hospitals in New Jersey have earned straight A’s as New Jersey’s safest hospitals since a national health care quality group began evaluating the safety records of more than 2,500 hospitals in 2012. Using public data and patient surveys, the report examines the incidence of preventable errors and dangerous outcomes, including blood clots, infections, bed sores falls. […]
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Hospitals and doctors are changing policies in regard to communication after a medical mistake. They have traditionally been reticent to disclose to patients or their family members the specifics of how a medical procedure didn’t go as planned for fear of malpractice lawsuits. In recent years, though, many are beginning to consider a change. Instead […]
Read More...More than half of physicians surveyed in a national study engaged in acts of rationing medicine, according to a study published on July 19th in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Approximately 53% of physicians personally refrained from offering patients specific services that would have provided the best care because of health system cost. The […]
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A new study reveals that medical error deaths could count for over 250,000 deaths each year. According to the study, published in the BMJ and authored by a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, this number is far larger than a 1999 study in which the number of medical error deaths was estimated at under 100,000. “Safety […]
Read More...Lawrence Schlachter was an accomplished neurosurgeon in Atlanta until a ball came flying off a hitter’s bat, shattering bones in his right hand and rendering him unable to operate. At that point, the 52 year-old took a novel approach: he went to law school and became a medical malpractice attorney. Having seen medical malpractice issues from […]
Read More...In the past seven years, healthcare miscommunication has cost over $1.7 billion in additional medical expenses, and over 1,700 lives. According to research from research/analysis firm CRICO Strategies, communication problems were a contributing factor in 7,149 cases (30 percent) of 23,000 medical malpractice claims filed between 2009 and 2013. Obviously, the statistics are only a fraction of […]
Read More...Recently, a writer on the Huffington Post described his experience with a friend undergoing treatment for slow-progressing lung cancer. The author describes multiple sets of mistakes by his friend’s “elite” medical team, and repeats the phrase that the doctors might kill him before the cancer does. There are a few excerpts below. “The result is […]
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