The Medical Malpractice Crises: Was the sky really falling?

Dallas attorney John Browning, who represents doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases, wrote an insightful opinion piece in his local paper earlier this week.  His article, Is The Sky Really Falling?, addresses the alleged medical malpractice crises.

Mr. Browning’s piece includes this conclusion:

If President Bush had listened to Mrs. Thornton’s tragic tale, he would realize that the system is neither broken nor overburdened by frivolous lawsuits; that medical negligence occurs more often than we’d care to admit; and that only a relatively small percentage of cases go all the way to trial and result in a plaintiff’s verdict. I’d also like to think there are ways to address concerns over medical malpractice other than restricting an individual’s right to go to court; such as requiring doctors and hospitals to report errors to a national, federally-supervised database (there is already a National Practition-ers Data Bank that tracks settlements, judgments, and disciplinary actions).

Saying that the sky is falling doesn’t give a complete picture of the medical malpractice issue, and it doesn’t address the most important aspect of all – the safety of patients.

Wrong Side, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Patient

“If you are having surgery, make sure your doctor marks the proper surgical site clearly — and initials it.” That’s a recommendation from a recent Washington Post article titled HEADED FOR THE HOSPITAL? HERE’S HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF.

That sounds a little extreme doesn’t it? While the hospitals may screw something up, surely they’ll get the right area, won’t they? Maybe not. The Archives of Surgery, the official medical journal of surgical associations across the country, has a recent report that studies surgeries (1) where the procedure was performed on the wrong-side or site of the body; (2) where the wrong procedures are performed; or (3) where the doctors operate on the wrong patients. There are no formal methods to report these type of surgeries, but the article’s authors surveyed several separate databases and estimated that there are between 1,300 and 2,700 of these events in the US each year. That means that each day, on average, there are 3-7 operations around the country where a doctor operates on the wrong side, performs the wrong procedure, or operates on the wrong patient. Those numbers would be almost unbelievable if they didn’t come from physicians themselves.

So maybe the advice isn’t so radical, and next time you go in the hospital, remember to protect yourself.

For more information on personal injury and medical malpractice claims, check out our firm’s site. Also, thanks to Virginia attorney Ben Glass for pointing us to the study.

Medical Malpractice: Costs for medical mistakes

In reviewing medical malpractice cases, we’re not really surprised by the rate of malpractice. But we are surprised by the number of medical providers that routinely bill patients and insurance companies for the care that went wrong and, even more appalling, for the care needed to correct the initial mistakes. In the past, individual patients had little power to resist these efforts. Fortunately, someone does.

An article in today’s Chicago Tribune describes the efforts of many large health care purchasers (for example, Boeing and General Motors) to stop the unnecessary charges. The groups called on hospital groups to apologize for the numerous errors and to waive any costs related to 28 “never” events — medical errors so basic that these employers say the errors should never happen. These events include surgery on the wrong body part, mixing up donor sperm in artificial insemination, retention of foreign objects (such as a sponge) in the body after surgery, and the giving of contaminated medication. Although the article says the number of such “never” events occurring annually is unknown, it is likely in the tens of thousands per year.

It will be interesting to see how the health care industry responds, and if they do, whether any benefits will be passed on to individual consumers or just those large employers with leverage.

For another post of the inefficiencies of health care, click here.

Medical Malpractice From A Consumer’s Perspective

A recent article in the Detroit News  describes General Motors’ costs due to medical errors and inefficiencies and GM’s effort to force reform in the Detroit area. The real attention-getter in the article comes from the introduction:

Sam Shalaby is a car guy. He used to run a Delphi components plant in Dayton, and his language is still sprinkled with manufacturing terms 10 years after becoming the muscle behind GM’s health care efforts. He speaks of colonoscopies in terms of price per unit and extols the virtues of “brand management” for medical centers.

For a company man accustomed to having products recalled for minor design flaws, the error-prone American health care system is baffling. On an average day, General Motors Corp. estimates that one person it insures dies because of medical errors, and 40 are sickened by prescription drug mistakes.

The automaker loses about $4 million a day because of medical errors and inefficiencies.

GM data reveal massive differences in quality and price of medical care across regions of the country, and even between hospitals in the same city. What’s worse, hospitals sometimes make more money when they make mistakes because they profit from longer recovery times.

“If we ran an auto plant like they run hospitals, we’d be out of business,” said Shalaby, director of community health initiatives. “The medical system is so obsolete, no one understands how to make it work.”

The article is enlightening. If GM is losing $4 million a day due to errors and inefficiencies, what is the cost to the entire economy?

Medication Errors

Study after study shows the frequency of medical errors.  However, a recent study by the Institute of Medicine brought to light the alarming rate of medication errors.  According to the study, medication errors affect more than 1.5 million Americans annually, killing thousands.  The rate of error was particularly surprising in hospitals.  The report found that “when all types of errors are taken into account, a hospital patient can expect on average to be subjected to more than one medication error each day.”  The report found that the annual economic cost of these hospital errors exceeds $3.5 billion annually.  

Fortunately, the Institute suggests some fairly painless steps that can help prevent errors, including (1) maintaining a list of medications that you take; (2) making sure you really understand the risks of the medication you take; and (3) make sure you know the reason you are taking each medication.