Articles Posted in Medical Negligence

Here is a great article by Shirley Svorny of the well-known liberal outfit, the  Cato Institute.  The article originally appeared in The Huffington Post:.

The U.S. House is set to consider on the Republicans’ Jobs Through Growth Act, which contains a section aimed at reforming medical malpractice by imposing caps on economic and non-economic damages similar to those in place in Texas. Texas limits non-economic and exemplary (punitive) damages in all cases, and limits what relatives can get in cases of wrongful death. An obvious disturbing consequence is that caps reduce compensation to severely-injured individuals. Caps would hurt consumers in a second way — lower damage awards would reduce medical professional liability insurers’ financial incentives to reduce practice risk.

Much of the protection consumers have against irresponsible and negligent behavior on the part of health care providers hinges on oversight and incentives created by the medical professional liability insurance industry. A nationwide shift to caps could result in more cases of negligence and substandard care.

NPR reports that a recent meeting of the Society for  Neuroscience  discussed why brain damage occurs in premature births.

Research has revealed that the most common cause of brain injury in premature infants is a lack of oxygen in the days and weeks after birth.  Apparently, the lack of oxygen damages white matter, which provides the "communication highways" that carry messages around the brain and to distant parts of the body.  The babies at greatest risk of this sort of brain damage are those born after as little as six months of gestation.

This lack of oxygen appears to damage the most common type of white matter, myelin, which acts like an insulator around the nerve fibers that carry messages in the brain and nervous system. Without enough myelin, short circuits can prevent these messages from getting through.  Evidence of white matter damage was initially found by studying brains from premature infants who died, but recently the researchers have been able to assess premature infants using a special incubator designed to fit in an MRI scanner.

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.

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.

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 "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.