Medical Negligence

February 1, 2010

Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims Report – 2008

The Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims Report for 2009 (which reports data for 2008) contains lots of information of interest to lawyers who represent Tennesseans in medical malpractice claims. Last week I wrote about the number of claims closed in 2008 and the amount paid on these claims. Today I will drill down a little deeper on one topic – resolution of claims involving death.

About 1960 Tennesseans die each year as a result of medical malpractice in a hospital. (The number that die as a result of malpractice in a doctor’s office or nursing home or dentist’s office or elsewhere has not been estimated to my knowledge.) Yet, in 2008, there were 538 medical malpractice claims resolved in cases where the allegation involved malpractice-related death of the patient in all settings.

The total amount of money paid to resolve the 538 death claims was $60,663,764, or an average of less than $120,000 per claim. I hasten to add that gross payment figure includes claims on which no money was paid. The report does not indicate how many closed death claims resulted in no payment whatsoever. However, the report does indicate that payments were made in only 15% or so of all closed claims in 2008. If that statistic is true in the wrongful death area, it means that payments were made in only about 80 wrongful death cases in 2008 and the average payment was about $750,000 per claim.

January 26, 2010

2009 Medical Malpractice Claims Report Released

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

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has released the 2009 Medical Malpractice Claims Report. Despite its title, the Report reveals data for calendar year 2008.

This is the fifth report issued by the Department and contains more different types of data than released in previous years because of a change in the reporting law. Today I will report on some of the data and will address the balance in later posts.

In 2008, there were 3154 medical malpractice claims closed in Tennessee. (More than one "claim" can arise in a single case; a claim is defined as "a demand for money damages for injury or death caused by medical malpractice; or a voluntary indemnity payment for injury or death caused by medical malpractice.") Of those claims 43 were resolved through ADR, 459 were resolved through settlement, 425 were resolved through judgment, and 2227 were otherwise resolved.

January 5, 2010

Tennessee Data From the National Practioners Data Bank

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

The National Practioners Data Bank collects data about malpractice claims paid by health care professionals. The NPDB has a report that lists all of medical malpractice paid claims against all Tennessee health care providers between September 1, 1990 through November 29, 2009, a period one month short of 20 years. To understand what data is collected by the NPDB click here.

The total number of paid claims against all health care providers in the United States is 340,463, or about 17,000 claims per year. Recall the National Institute of Medicine said that there were 98,000 documented deaths per year in our nation’s hospitals.

After the jump I have listed the number of paid claims by type of provider in Tennessee. The data does not include hospitals or nursing homes except to the extent the payment was made by a hospital or nursing home on behalf of an individual provider after receipt of a written claim or lawsuit.

December 31, 2009

Nevada Supreme Court Restricts Lawsuits Against Pharamacies

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

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a pharmacy does not owe a duty of care to unidentified third parties who were injured by a pharmacy customer who was driving while under the influence of controlled prescription drugs.

In reaching the decision, the court rejected the arguments that pharmacies have a duty to act to prevent a pharmacy customer from injuring members of the general public and that Nevada’s pharmacy statutory and regulatory laws allow third parties to maintain a negligence per se claim for alleged violations concerning dispensation of prescription drugs and maintenance of customers’ records.

Here is the court’s summary of the facts:

December 28, 2009

Problem Nurses Move From State to State

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

Today’s Tennessean has an article originally published in the Los Angeles Times that reveals a problem with nurses moving from state to state and leaving behind a bad disciplinary record.

The article reports that "using public databases and state disciplinary reports, reporters found hundreds of cases in which registered nurses held clear licenses in some states after they had been sanctioned in others, often for serious misdeeds. In California alone, a months-long review of its 350,000 active nurses found at least 177 whose licenses had been revoked, surrendered, suspended or denied elsewhere."

This problem can be avoided. "By simply typing a nurse’s name into a national database, state officials can often find out within seconds whether the nurse has been sanctioned anywhere in the country and why. But some states don’t check regularly or at all."

December 21, 2009

Physicians in the United States Less Likely to Use Health Information Technology

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

According to the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey, only 46 percent of U.S. doctors use electronic medical records, compared to 99 percent of doctors in the Netherlands and 97 percent of doctors in New Zealand and Norway.

"We spend far more than any of the other countries in the survey, yet a majority of U.S. primary care doctors say their patients often can’t afford care, and a wide majority of primary care physicians don’t have advanced computer systems to access patient test results, anticipate and avoid medication errors or support care for chronically ill patients," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, lead author of an article appearing in Health Affairs.

The survey also reports that

December 10, 2009

Medical Malpractice Insurance Rates

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

From the American Association for Justice:

State tort reforms have provided a boon to insurance companies, leading to record profits while physician and patient premiums continue to skyrocket.

An analysis of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and company annual statements shows malpractice insurer profits are 24 percent higher in states with caps. In these cap states, insurers took in 3.5 times more in premiums than they paid out in 2008. In contrast, insurers in states without caps took in just over twice what they paid in claims.

December 7, 2009

When to Evaluate for a Hypercoagulable State

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

The Doctors Company is a medical malpractice insurer. Its website contains articles of interest to all Tennessee medical malpractice lawyers and, in fact, medical malpractice lawyers in every state.

For example, one interesting article is titled "When to Evaluate for a Hypercoagulable State." Here is an excerpt:

Hypercoagulability is any alteration in the coagulation pathway that predisposes to thrombosis; it can be divided into primary (genetic) and secondary (acquired) disorders.

November 25, 2009

AAP Issues Expert Witness Policy

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

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a Policy Statement titled "Guidelines for Expert Testimony in Medical Malpractice Litigation.

After reviewing the role of the expert witness in medical malpractice litigation, the Guidelines begin the "recommendations" section of the paper with this statement:

The AAP recognizes that physicians have the professional, ethical, and legal duty to testify as called on in a court of law in accordance with their expertise. Physicians serving as expert witnesses have an obligation to present complete and unbiased information with which the trier of fact can ascertain whether the defendant was medically negligent and whether, as a result, the plaintiff suffered compensable

November 22, 2009

New Medical Malpractice Case Filing Statistics

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

Here is the most up-to-date data on medical malpractice case filings in Tennessee.

Regular readers know that effective October 1, 2008 the General Assembly imposed significant restrictions on patients who want to file a medical malpractice suits. The new law, which was modified again effective July 1, 2009, requires pre-suit notice and the filing of a certificate of good faith.

For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2008, 644 medical malpractice lawsuits were filed in Tennessee. A whooping 140 of those were filed in September 2008 as lawyers filed suits to avoid the burden and risks of filing cases under the new law. If September 2008 were an average month, one would have expected only 45 cases to have been filed.