Insurance Journal reports that a Kentucky jury has sided with a physician who is alleged to have amputated a portion of his patient’s penis without the patient’s consent. The article states that "[t]he doctor said he decided to amputate less than an inch of the penis after he found potentially deadly cancer…
Kenneth Levine of Kenneth Levine and Associates of Brookline, Massachusetts has filed a fascinating lawsuit against the authors of an article on brachial plexus injuries and the publication that printed the article. Levine alleges that the article, "Permanent Brachial Plexus Injury Following Vaginal Delivery Without Physician Traction or Shoulder Dystocia…
Max Kennerly has a great post on a study on medical malpractice that was recently published in the NEJM. Read it here.
Are you more likely to get hurt in the hospital in July? This article from the New York Times says "yes," if you are in a teaching hospital. The Times article references to a paper published earlier this month in Annals of Internal Medicine,. The paper examines previous studies of the…
The Doctors Company, a professional liability insurer for physicians, has a "Knowledge Center" on its website that contains lots of useful information. Here is a great example. In "Telephone Safety and Patient Triage," the writer explains that "implementing an effective telephone triage system in the office practice can improve physician-patient…
"Death by Medicine" is a report by Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD. The report reveals that "that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American…
State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company (SVMIC) had another outstanding year in 2010. Here are some highlights from its "2010 Report to Policyholders:" Surplus (think: net worth) increased almost 20% to $444 million, up from $364 million in 2009. Earned premiums dropped to $218 million, due to a significant rate reduction…
The Boston Globe reports that more than 2000 people died in a period of a little more than five years because of issues arising from alarms on hospitalized patients. The cause in many cases: personnel did not notice that the alarms were sounding or ignored them. From the article: …
A new study reveals that as many as 75 percent of hospital tests are not followed up and this failure can have serious consequences for patients, including delayed or missed diagnoses and even death. The study is a "study of studies," and looked at 12 international studies. The work showed…
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has released this Adverse Event Protocol discussing what should be done when things go bad for a patient receiving or who is under anesthesia. As the author of the plan explains, the "plan of action will help minimize damage to the patient (and also to…