Tag: mississippi medical malpractice

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As a Memphis, Tennessee medical malpractice lawyer, we wanted to report on the following article and advise we are available to discuss the facts of your case with you.

The New York Times (10/19, D7, Rabin) reports in Vital Signs that “despite a requirement that hospitals abide by a standard set of procedures to prevent surgical mistakes like operating on the wrong patient or the wrong body part, such errors continue to occur far too often,” according to a paper in the Archives of Surgery. “Past estimates suggested that such mistakes occurred once in every 110,000 procedures, but the paper’s lead author, Dr. Philip F. Stahel, said the incidence might not be so rare — and might even have increased.” He even went so far as to call the “data…shocking.”

The author of the editorial accompanying the study told CNN /Health.com (10/18, Gardner) that “catastrophic surgical errors are ‘a lot more common than the public thinks.'” Martin Makary, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, added, “Each hospital, whether they publicly admit it or not, and whether or not it’s discoverable in a lawsuit, has an episode of wrong-site or wrong-patient surgery either every year or once every few years.” The current study authors decided to look at hospitals in Colorado.

They reviewed cases that were “included in a database of errors doctors reported to the Colorado Physician Insurance Co., or COPIC, between Jan. 1, 2002, and June 1, 2008,” the AP (10/19) reports. “Of the 27,370 incidents in the database, the study found 25 surgeries were performed on the wrong patient and 107 operations on the wrong body part.” What’s more, approximately “one-fourth of those operations inflicted ‘significant harm’ on a patient…and one person died” after suffering “acute respiratory failure” when a “chest tube was placed on the incorrect side.”

If you or a loved one in Tennessee, Mississippi or Arkansas believes you are the victim of medical malpractice and have sustained an injury to yourself or your child, infant, parent or loved one, including because of a hospital infection or otherwise, please call us today for a free case evaluation:(800) 632-1404

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The Dallas Morning News (11/17, Dunklin) DMN Investigates blog says, “A new federal report found that 1 in 7 Medicare patients experienced harmful medical care during hospitalization, extending their stays in many cases, contributing to the deaths of some and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.” In the report, the “inspector general projected that about 134,000 Medicare patients had endured so-called ‘adverse events’ like medication errors, delays in treatment and surgical mistakes. Another 134,000 experienced what the inspector general termed ‘temporary harm,’ such as prolonged vomiting and hypoglycemia.”

The AP (11/17) reports, “Medicare’s new chief called for more steps to improve patient safety Tuesday, in the wake of a government report that said one in seven hospitalized Medicare patients is harmed during their stay.” Approximately “1.5 percent of those patients, or 15,000 people a month, suffered a complication that contributed to their death, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services said.” In response to the findings, Berwick, who is “a well-known quality-care specialist,” said, “We have to do better.” CMS “unveiled a new Medicare ‘innovation center’ Tuesday designed to develop and test ways to improve quality of care and lower health care costs for everyone, not just Medicare recipients.”

The Hill (11/17, Pecquet) also notes the launching of the new innovation center in its Healthwatch blog, and quotes Berwick as saying, “For too long, health care in the United States has been fragmented — failing to meet patients’ basic needs, and leaving both patients and providers frustrated. … The Innovation Center will help change this trend by identifying, supporting, and evaluating models of care that both improve the quality of care patients receive and lower costs.” Richard Gilfillan, the center’s acting director, “added that the center aims to improve the care of Medicare and Medicaid patients alike by working to ‘identify, validate, and scale models that have been effective in achieving better outcomes and improving the quality of care.”

If you or a loved one in Tennessee, Mississippi or Arkansas believes you are the victim of medical malpractice and have sustained an injury to yourself or your child, infant, parent or loved one, including because of a hospital infection or otherwise, please call us today for a free case evaluation:(800) 632-1404

For immediate help:

CALL: 1-800-632-1404

FILL OUT THIS FORM FOR FREE HELP: