Malpractice and medical liability

1,592 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 19

Just sign here: That isn’t real informed consent

March 26, 2013Mar 26, 201343

Before patients can become savvy consumers of healthcare, they need information about their healthcare choices. Too often, such information is nearly impossible to get, especially when it requires doctors to give patients useful statistics about things like treatment side effects.…

Since publishing Critical Decisions this fall, I have received a number of emails from readers who have recognized their own medical histories in the pages of my book. I received …

Physician voices

Why a malpractice win for doctors feels like a great loss

BirdStrike, MD

March 22, 2013Mar 22, 20139

My kid and I are outside in the front yard blowing bubbles, enjoying the blue skies and 70 degree weather when she says, “Cool Daddy! Look, there’s a police car coming down the street. Oh, cool! I think he’s coming…

Uh, oh, I think to myself. Despite my kid’s excitement, I know that rarely does anything good come delivered by a policeman. My wife is inside, my one …

Physician voices

Medical malpractice stress syndrome: The ignored side of litigation

Sherry Gorman, MD

March 21, 2013Mar 21, 2013131

In March 2008, prominent Denver business owner Leslie Fishbein suffered cardiac arrest and died after receiving trigger point injections with bupivacaine for chronic neck pain. Ms. Fishbein owned a chain of high-end furniture stores. She was well known within the community because of her starring role in television commercials promoting her business. Her death drew tremendous media attention and heavy scrutiny for …

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Patient voices

After my daughter’s death, I work to prevent future deaths

Martha Deed, PhD

March 17, 2013Mar 17, 201311

Another disturbed and disturbing night. It doesn't happen often three years later. Now – when it does happen – I generally know why. I am preparing to make a presentation of a sentinel event from my daughter's final illness to…

Another disturbed and disturbing night. It doesn’t happen often three years later. Now – when it does happen – I generally know why.

I am preparing to make a presentation of a sentinel event from my daughter’s final illness to a group of medical professionals and patient advocates. Last night, I was working on key points. What issues seem most important for hospital staffs to address after these years of reflection?

I …

Physician voices

Why malpractice reform will happen, whether lawyers like it or not

Wes Fisher, MD

March 12, 2013Mar 12, 20134

A collision is coming. Scratch that. The collision is here. I'm not quite sure how to describe this, but I'll try. Every day, I look at a computer screen for health care delivery with an increasing number of menu options.…

A collision is coming.

Scratch that.

The collision is here.

I’m not quite sure how to describe this, but I’ll try.

Every day, I look at a computer screen for health care delivery with an increasing number of menu options. I tried counting these menu options once and after scrolling through them, I never reached all of them after counting up to 275 items.

Yes, there are …

Health policy

Reducing medical errors: What we can learn from the Dreamliner

David B. Nash, MD, MBA

March 9, 2013Mar 9, 201316

If you think that medical errors are a thing of the past, you are mistaken. It has been 14 years since the Institute of Medicine's report "To Err Is Human" shattered the myth that most, if not all, physicians are…

If you think that medical errors are a thing of the past, you are mistaken.

It has been 14 years since the Institute of Medicine’s report “To Err Is Human” shattered the myth that most, if not all, physicians are all-knowing practitioners with flawless skills and infallible judgment.

The story of what happened in the report’s wake was predictable:

Where the healthcare industry failed to

…

Health policy

Disclosure and offer: Who protects the patient’s interests?

Gabriel H. Teninbaum & Steve S. Kraman, MD

March 6, 2013Mar 6, 2013

When the Lexington, Kentucky VA Medical Center pioneered the “disclosure and offer” risk management strategy in 1987, it sought to make patients whole without the need to litigate. As part of this process, before meeting with injured patients, VA risk managers contacted the patient and recommended they seek their own legal counsel who they were welcome to bring to the meeting. The VA viewed this as a necessary step for …

Patient voices

Survivors of medical error need crisis intervention

Martha Deed, PhD

February 16, 2013Feb 16, 20139

When health journalist Cheryl Clark wrote about the need for crisis intervention for "second victims" of medical error, defining "second victims" as medical caretakers, she struck a nerve. Recommending crisis intervention for staff, highlights the absence of meaningful help for…

When health journalist Cheryl Clark wrote about the need for crisis intervention for “second victims” of medical error, defining “second victims” as medical caretakers, she struck a nerve. Recommending crisis intervention for staff, highlights the absence of meaningful help for injured patients and their families.

In Clark’s article, a hospital patient safety officer notes that medical error trauma is worse when hospital staff …

Patient voices

Outrage: The crisis in patient safety

Jessie Gruman, PhD

February 5, 2013Feb 5, 20139

Sometimes, angry patients and dissident doctors and nurses warn us about the impending patient revolution – how health care is so unsafe, of such poor quality and so expensive for us patients that we are soon going to rise up out of our beds, go to our windows and, in unison, holler, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

We’ll riot in the streets, …

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Outrage: The crisis in patient safety

Health policy

Are hospitals learning from the lawyers?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

January 23, 2013Jan 23, 20134

The September 2012 issue of the AARP Bulletin has a story about a woman who sued an elder-law attorney for legal malpractice. Bear with me. It’s an interesting tale. In 2004, a man consulted an elder-law attorney to set up…

The September 2012 issue of the AARP Bulletin has a story about a woman who sued an elder-law attorney for legal malpractice. Bear with me. It’s an interesting tale.

In 2004, a man consulted an elder-law attorney to set up a trust that would distribute his assets fairly. He had a daughter from his previous marriage and his wife had five children from her previous marriage. The story is …

Physician voices

I was sued and lived to tell the tale

Natasha Deonarain, MD, MBA

January 17, 2013Jan 17, 201339

A few years ago, I was sued. Yes indeed, I can now shout it from the rooftops. I know what it feels like to sit in the fire and burn into ashes of self-doubt, regret and emptiness; staring into the soulless, Cyclopean eye of a deposition camera, recounting my sins, defending my pride. I know what it’s like to live with fear, up close and personal. And I know what …

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I was sued and lived to tell the tale

Physician voices

Medical malpractice: Equating standard of care to best practice

Shadowfax, MD

January 8, 2013Jan 8, 2013

I review a lot of cases in my professional life. Some of them are just ones that our QA group comes across in our practice. Some are cases related to our liability policy. Some are cases I’m sent for review, or educational cases I present. We see a lot of cases which could have been done better, or in which the …

Health technology

Information overload for doctors increases malpractice risk

Wes Fisher, MD

January 1, 2013Jan 1, 20133

I have used the electronic medical record (specifically EPIC) since 2004. I have grown accustomed to its nuances, benefits and quirks. There are parts about it I really like. There are parts of it I’d like to do without but accept that they are necessary evils in our current health care climate. I know that there will always be parts of any modified …

Physician voices

Waiting for a story that could potentially decimate my life

Kate O'Reilley, MD

December 6, 2012Dec 6, 20122

Waking before dawn, I scurry into the study. Sitting in front of the computer, I wiggle the mouse, bringing the screen to life. Hesitantly, I call up the site for the major local newspaper. Since being notified by my attorneys one week prior that a reporter was hunting me down for comment, I am on heightened alert. Every day spent awaiting a story that could potentially decimate my life.

The home …

Physician voices

Stopping extensive pre-op testing requires malpractice reform

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

December 4, 2012Dec 4, 20126

As predictable as the leaves falling this time of year, another paper on the subject of unnecessary preoperative laboratory testing has appeared. A group from the University of Texas Medical Branch looked at more than 73,000 elective hernia repairs in…

As predictable as the leaves falling this time of year, another paper on the subject of unnecessary preoperative laboratory testing has appeared.

A group from the University of Texas Medical Branch looked at more than 73,000 elective hernia repairs in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (NSQIP) database. Almost 2/3 of the patients had preoperative laboratory tests. Of that group, 58.6% had a CBC, 53.5% had electrolytes, 23.7% …

Conditions and diseases

The difference between complications and negligence

Michael Kirsch, MD

November 17, 2012Nov 17, 2012

A patient who was minutes away from his colonoscopy, asked me how many colonoscopies I had performed. Before I could answer, he quickly followed-up asking if any of my patients developed perforation of the colon after the procedure. I satisfied…

I satisfied his initial inquiry when I informed him that I have intruded into at least 20,000 colons in the past 2 decades. With regard to his second and more ‘penetrating’ question, I …

Physician voices

Why it’s important to place limits on liability by association

Chris Rangel, MD

November 12, 2012Nov 12, 20123

In June of 2006 Mary Ann Ambrogio went to see her gastroenterologist Dr. Frank Troncale in Connecticut for a follow up of her history of liver cirrhosis and associated hepatic encephalopathy. Reportedly following this visit Mrs. Ambrogio was driving home…

In June of 2006 Mary Ann Ambrogio went to see her gastroenterologist Dr. Frank Troncale in Connecticut for a follow up of her history of liver cirrhosis and associated hepatic encephalopathy.

Reportedly following this visit Mrs. Ambrogio was driving home when she passed out and hit a pedestrian John Jarmie causing “severe and permanent” injuries. The injured pedestrian sued Dr. Troncale claiming malpractice under Connecticut law in that the doctor did …

Health policy

National reporting isn’t the answer to reduce medical errors

Kevin R. Campbell, MD

October 21, 2012Oct 21, 20123

Two articles recently addressed medical errors. In the Wall Street Journal, surgeon Dr. Marty Makary discusses the alarming costs of medical errors and offers suggestions to improve the system. In medicine, particularly during the training years of residency and fellowship,…

Two articles recently addressed medical errors.

In the Wall Street Journal, surgeon Dr. Marty Makary discusses the alarming costs of medical errors and offers suggestions to improve the system. In medicine, particularly during the training years of residency and fellowship, young doctors are not given the opportunity or security to report shortcomings of their superiors.

As discussed in the article, all of us have a memory of a particular surgeon …

Physician voices

Cause of death: Defensive medicine

BirdStrike, MD

October 5, 2012Oct 5, 201211

1. A 40-year-old female sees her family physician for burning chest pain after she eats hot peppers. She had it only once while exercising. Her family physician sends her to the emergency department and she gets admitted for chest pain. Rather than going home with treatment for her GERD, she ends up dead. This never should have happened, but the family never learns what really killed her.

2. A 33-year-old father of …

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Cause of death: Defensive medicine

Physician voices

Why punishing medical mistakes won’t make patients safer

Edmund Kwok, MD

September 25, 2012Sep 25, 20126

An interesting story came across my desk recently. Apparently, some states in the U.S. have moved towards a punitive model in trying deal with medical errors and adverse outcomes – this particular story describes how Utah will no longer fund healthcare providers and hospitals for dealing with illnesses that resulted from avoidable errors and infections.

On the surface, it kind of makes sense – one should be punished for making a …

Malpractice and medical liability

Articles, page 19

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