Medical Negligence

February 15, 2011

Patients Are Dying From Unheard Alarms

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:

The Globe enlisted the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health care research and consulting organization based in Pennsylvania, to help it analyze the Food and Drug Administration’s database of adverse events involving medical devices. The institute listed monitor alarms as the number-one health technology hazard for 2009. Its review found 216 deaths nationwide from 2005 to the middle of 2010 in which problems with monitor alarms occurred.

February 10, 2011

Hospitals Fail to Follow-Up on Test Results

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

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 that between 1% and 75% of tests run on ER patients were not followed up after the patients were discharged. For inpatient tests the rate was 20% to 65%.

The study is published in the Feb. 8 edition of the journal BMJ Quality and Safety.

February 8, 2011

Adverse Event Protocol in Anesthesia

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

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 the involved practitioners) as well as promote understanding and learning that will help prevent recurrence or repetition of the adverse event."

This is a very good piece of work by the APSF and they are to be commended for creating it.

January 27, 2011

Lies, Damn Lies and Medical Malpractice Reform

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Tennessee consumers injured by medical negligence are facing a full assault on their right to trial by jury. Some members of the new General Assembly seem hell-bent on placing arbitrary caps on damages, notwithstanding the fact that medical malpractice lawsuits are down over 40% and malpractice insurer profits are soaring.

Max Kennerly, one of my favorite bloggers, has a great post on similar efforts in Congress. Here is an excerpt:

Even if we put aside the fact that, for every dollar spent on compensating the victims of medical negligence, more than $5 dollars in damage was caused by medical negligence, it bears repeating that the overall costs of compensating injured patients is so small that it the medical malpractice liability system does not restrict access to health care. Similarly, malpractice lawsuits have not been shown to change of physician behavior — so-called “defense medicine” — even in high-risk, high-liability cases like obstetricians’ decisions to perform c-sections when the baby shows signs of fetal distress.

January 27, 2011

Preventing and Management of Operating Room Fires

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has created a video that discusses how to prevent and manage fires that occur in the operating room.

The video is 18 minutes long and was released in February 2010.

Here is what the organization says about operating room fires:

January 26, 2011

2010 Medical Malpractice Reports Due March 1, 2011

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has put the medical malpractice case reporting form on its website. The reports must be filed on or before March 1, 2011.

Plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorneys who concluded a case in 2010 must complete this form.

December 29, 2010

Upcoming TBA Speech – January 5, 2011 Noon CST

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

I will be speaking on a Webcast seminar on January 5, 2011 at Noon CST discussing the developments in the law of notice and certificates of good faith in medical malpractice cases. I will also discuss service of process issues after the decision in Hall v. Haynes.

The seminar is sponsored by the Tennessee Bar Association. The price is $45 for TBA members and $65 for non-TBA members. One hour of CLE credit will be earned.

Register here.

December 20, 2010

Federal Judge Rules That Certificate of Good Faith Must Be Filed in FTCA Med Mal Cases

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Judge Mays of the United States District Court in Memphis has dismissed a medical malpractice case filed against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act because the plaintiff did not file a certificate of good faith as required by T.C.A. Sec. 29-26-122.

Judge Mays held that the federal courts should apply Tennessee substantive law on the issue and that the failure to file the certificate required dismissal of the case.

The judge also dismissed the loss of consortium claim brought by the medical malpractice plaintiff’s spouse, saying that her claim was derivative to her husband’s claim and since his claim was rejected for failure to file the certificate the loss of consortium claim was also barred.

November 29, 2010

NY Times: “Study Finds No Progress in Safety at Hospitals”

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The November 25, 2010 New York Times has reported on a study that has found that no progress has been made at improving patient safety in hospitals.

The study is reported in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine. It was conducted from 2002 to 2007 in 10 North Carolina hospitals, found that harm to patients was common and that the number of incidents did not decrease over time. The most common problems were complications from procedures or drugs and hospital-acquired infections.

As the author explained,

November 11, 2010

State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company’s Profits Explode

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Yesterday I reported that SVMIC, the bedpan mutual that insures the vast majority of Tennessee doctors, reduced its rates by 23.1% . I also reported that the company declared a $20,000,000 dividend. The net effect of the dividend means that policyholders with a history of no paid claims will receive another 8% reduction (or so) in rates effective May 15, 2010.

How can SVMIC cut rates so dramatically while paying the highest dividend it has paid in years? There are two reasons. First, as a result of the tort reform passed effective October 1, 2008 (revised effective July 1, 2009) claims have decreased substantially. Fewer claims means reduced claims handling costs, defense fees, court reporter and other litigation fees, and claims payments. Since the law permits insurers to "write off" reserves as they are established, fewer claims means that reserves are lower than these would have otherwise been had there been more claims. A decrease in the need to set aside money in reserves for these "absent" claims increases net income.

And how it has increased. In 2009, SVMIC had a net income (after taxes) of a whopping $71, 968,000, an increase of over 100% from a year earlier.