Articles Posted in Medical Negligence

The Doctor’s Company sells medical malpractice insurance to doctors.  In 2010, it conducted  525 patient safety site surveys. The surveys  were conducted across a range of practice environments around the country—from small office practices to large integrated delivery systems, hospitals, and outpatient facilities, such as surgery centers.

The survey found that in the 15 categories it surveyed,  medical record documentation was the category with the most frequent patient safety/risk management issues. A total of 266 surveys—more than half of the 525 site surveys—had at least one issue related to this category. Top findings within this category included the failure to document allergy status in the same location in each record and the lack of a problem list or a list of current medications.

The research also disclosed that  two combined categories—lab tests/referrals and scheduling/follow-up—came a close second with issues in 234 of the surveys. Although the categories are individually ranked fourth and fifth,searchers determined that  the  they are so closely related that a finding in one typically leads to a finding in the other.

Sounds outrageous, doesn’t it?  A guy  kills his mother and then the Georgia Supreme Court says he has a right to sue his psychiatrist for inappropriate psychiatric treatment that gave rise to the death of his mother.  

It is outrageous only if you know nothing about either law or medicine.

Psychiatrists are trained to help people who have mental illness (duh).  Some psychiatrists are good.  Some are bad.  Some good psychiatrists will, from time to time, fall below the standard of care and cause harm to a patient.

The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to determine whether a  limit on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the state’s constitution.  The law was passed in 2003 as part of a Republican-led effort to limit the rights of medical malpractice victims.  The damages cap in Florida is $500,000 per claimant and practitioner with an aggregate cap of $1,000,000.

Here are the facts of the case as reported by FJA:

In June 2005, Michelle McCall began receiving prenatal medical care at a United States Air Force clinic as an Air Force dependent. On February 21, 2006, test results revealed that Ms. McCall’s blood pressure was high, requiring labor be induced immediately. Ms. McCall remained at the family practice department instead of being transferred to the OB/GYN department. When it was determined that Ms. McCall would require a cesarean section, an Air Force obstetrician was called. Unfortunately, he was unavailable, so the family practice department opted to wait and deliver the child vaginally instead of calling another doctor.

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 during surgery in 2007. The rest of the penis was taken off later by another doctor.  [The defendant doctor] testified that when he cut the foreskin, the tip of the penis had the appearance of rotten cauliflower, indicating cancer. A pathologist later testified that tests confirmed the diagnosis."

The plaintiff argued that the doctor should have allowed the patient to wake up from the procedure and determine whether he wanted the amputation.   He alleged that he only gave consent for a circumcision.   He also alleged negligence in performing the procedure.

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 ", was published in 2008 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and is being used by defense experts to defeat brachial plexus injury claims.  The article claims to report the  "first unambiguous  case of a baby born vaginally  without  physician traction, and even without the occurrence of shoulder dystocia, that resulted in a permanent brachial  plexus  injury."
 
He further alleges that the  case report of the delivery contains false information and the individual defendants knew the data was false when it was published.  The Complaint states that the corporate defendants were later made aware of the falsities and have refused to retract the article.

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 "July effect," and while the analysis found inconsistencies among nearly 40 studies examined, the data produced by the largest and best-designed ones indicated that patient death rates in teaching hospitals increase by 8 percent in July.  Those studies also reported longer hospital stays, more drawn-out procedures and higher hospital charges in July, when 20 to 30 percent of the more experienced doctors-in-training leave and a class of newly minted doctors starts working at teaching hospitals.

Those of us who do medical negligence work know that this article makes sense.  The massive shift of medical students and residents in our teaching hospitals every July 1 is bound to lead to errors.

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 communication, confidence, service, satisfaction, and care. It can also reduce emergency department visits while ensuring access to the appropriate level of care. Telephone triage, which is just one of the ways that telemedicine is practiced, has its own risks."

The paper has some excellent recommendations for physicians on how to establish a safe and effective way to communicate with patients over the telephone.

"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 medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US. (By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251."

The report explains that

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 (average:  23%) and a decrease in the number of policyholders secondary to increased competition in the marketplace.
  • Despite a decrease in earned premiums of over 15% (totaling over $43M),  post-tax net income declined only a little over $4M to $67,668,000.
  • Profits as a percentage of revenue were extraordinarily high, at over 25%. 
  • The unpaid loss and loss adjustment expense reserve actually dropped for 2010, a very unusual result.
  • On February 22, 2011, the company declared another $20M dividend to its policyholders.  This will decrease rates by an average of about 9%.  This follows a dividend of $20M in 2010.

SVMIC’s 2011-12 rate filing will be available shortly and, I predict, will show further rate declines.

Of course, the tort reform measures virtually certain to be enacted into law in the next couple weeks will further enhance this company’s profits.  

Contact Information