Malpractice and medical liability

1,592 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 23

Emotionally supporting physicians sued for malpractice

June 6, 2011Jun 6, 20119

A physician or nurse who receives a Summons and Complaint regarding a medical malpractice suit also receives pointers about whom to talk to, what to say, what not to say, and whom not to talk to. Despite some emphatic precautions,…

To help defendant clinicians cope, the answer …

Physician voices

Medical malpractice tort reform equals healthcare reform

Darrell E. White, MD

May 26, 2011May 26, 201143

I’m a big game theory guy. I think you can explain the actions of the participants in any structured activity or enterprise by looking at the rules of the game. When you look backwards in time you discover that the…

I’m a big game theory guy.

I think you can explain the actions of the participants in any structured activity or enterprise by looking at the rules of the game. When you look backwards in time you discover that the “players” almost always made choices that represented rational self-interest. This is especially true in games played using zero sum rules: someone wins only if someone else loses. How the game is …

Physician voices

Cut hospitalizations to reduce hospital related medical errors

David K. Cundiff, MD

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011

To address the huge problem of errors by health professionals causing injuries and deaths to hospitalized patients, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius unveiled the Partnership for Patients initiative. Secretary Sebelius referred to a…

Secretary Sebelius referred to a recent study showing that adverse events in hospitalized patients, including those caused by human errors (i.e., preventable), occur about 10 times …

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Health policy

How malpractice hurts doctors and their future patients

Kevin Pho, MD

May 16, 2011May 16, 201189

Little has been written about the impact a malpractice lawsuit has on physicians. But physicians who've been sued have a higher rate of suicide, and emergency physician Edwin Leap wrote about how doctors are emotionally scarred from the grueling ordeal…

Little has been written about the impact a malpractice lawsuit has on physicians.

But physicians who’ve been sued have a higher rate of suicide, and emergency physician Edwin Leap wrote about how doctors are emotionally scarred from the grueling ordeal of a trial.

A recent piece from American Medical News puts faces on the toll:

The key to surviving is having

…

Physician voices

Physicians coping after a medical error

Jock Hoffman

May 10, 2011May 10, 20115

A failed treatment, a surgical complication, a medical error, a patient death. When the going gets tough, even the toughest clinicians should get help. Physicians and nurses who feel personally responsible for a medical error or a patient’s injury face…

A failed treatment, a surgical complication, a medical error, a patient death. When the going gets tough, even the toughest clinicians should get help.

Physicians and nurses who feel personally responsible for a medical error or a patient’s injury face an immediate quandary—their next patient. In the midst of your angst and guilt, do you suck it up and soldier …

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Physicians coping after a medical error

Physician voices

Where do we draw the line on criminalizing mistakes?

Jeffrey Knuppel, MD

May 7, 2011May 7, 201114

Eric Cropp was a pharmacist who was sent to prison for a mistake that resulted in the death of a child. This was a high profile case, but it was just one of many examples of a disturbing trend I’ve…

Eric Cropp was a pharmacist who was sent to prison for a mistake that resulted in the death of a child.

This was a high profile case, but it was just one of many examples of a disturbing trend I’ve seen in the U.S. in recent years: a person commits a mistake–with no malicious intent and without being under the …

Physician voices

New ACGME work hour regulations for interns: friend or foe?

angienadia, MD

May 5, 2011May 5, 20118

On the night of October 4, 1984, a young girl named Libby Zion was admitted to New York Hospital in Manhattan for fever, agitation and strange jerking movements. No one knew that her death the next morning would, 27 years…

When Libby was evaluated in the emergency room that night, neither the ER physician nor her family physician Dr. …

Physician voices

Should nurses be fired for fatal medication errors?

Kevin Pho, MD

May 2, 2011May 2, 201131

Kimberly Hiatt was a pediatric critical care nurse who accidentally gave an infant a fatal overdose of calcium chloride last year. By accounts, it was a calculation error. A human mistake. After the incident, the hospital fired her. This past…

Kimberly Hiatt was a pediatric critical care nurse who accidentally gave an infant a fatal overdose of calcium chloride last year.

By accounts, it was a calculation error. A human mistake.

After the incident, the hospital fired her.

This past April, she took her own life.

Although it cannot be concluded that the tragedy was directly responsible for her suicide, the incident clearly …

Health policy

A medical malpractice system that reduces errors and improves quality

Kevin Pho, MD

April 25, 2011Apr 25, 201123

The Affordable Care Act does very little to reform the medical malpractice system. It only allocates $50 million to various pilot projects around the country. A recent piece in the New England Journal of Medicine provides more detail. It appears…

The Affordable Care Act does very little to reform the medical malpractice system.

It only allocates $50 million to various pilot projects around the country.

A recent piece in the New England Journal of Medicine provides more detail. It appears that, instead of capping non-economic damages, many of the projects have a quality …

Physician voices

Diagnostic errors and their role in patient safety

Charles A. Pilcher, MD

March 31, 2011Mar 31, 20114

American Medical News published an informative essay by Kevin B. O’Reilly on December 13, 2010, about errors in diagnosis and why doctors make them. According to Gordon Schiff, MD, associate director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice…

American Medical News published an informative essay by Kevin B. O’Reilly on December 13, 2010, about errors in diagnosis and why doctors make them.

According to Gordon Schiff, MD, associate director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “The problem of diagnostic errors has gotten short shrift in the broader patient safety movement.” The article focused on …

Physician voices

Uncertainty in the diagnostic methods of the obstetrician

Henry Dorn, MD

March 20, 2011Mar 20, 20117

In 1974, the noted obstetrician Marcus Filshie published a review of the relatively new electronic fetal monitoring in the British Journal of Hospital Medicine. He stated, somewhat fatefully: Now that the appropriate technology is available, the obstetrician may virtually eliminate…

In 1974, the noted obstetrician Marcus Filshie published a review of the relatively new electronic fetal monitoring in the British Journal of Hospital Medicine. He stated, somewhat fatefully:

Now that the appropriate technology is available, the obstetrician may virtually eliminate intrapartum stillbirths and reduce morbidity to a minimum.

Similar statements were made in the United States by leaders in the obstetrical community and …

Health policy

Health costs need to be addressed by doctors, patients, and lawyers

Kevin Pho, MD

March 15, 2011Mar 15, 201128

It's no secret that our health system encourages doctors to order too many tests. Compounded with the widespread belief that more tests equates to better medicine, the reasons why health costs are spiraling out of control aren't a secret. In…

It’s no secret that our health system encourages doctors to order too many tests. Compounded with the widespread belief that more tests equates to better medicine, the reasons why health costs are spiraling out of control aren’t a secret.

In a perspective piece from the New England Journal of Medicine, physician Sean Palfrey notes our dire situation:

Recent advances

…

Patient voices

Medical error in a fertility clinic

Carolyn Savage

March 7, 2011Mar 7, 20113

Our names will be forever connected with one of the most significant medical errors ever made inside a fertility clinic. In February 2009, through a process referred to as a frozen embryo transfer, another couple's embryos were mistakenly transferred into…

Our names will be forever connected with one of the most significant medical errors ever made inside a fertility clinic.

In February 2009, through a process referred to as a frozen embryo transfer, another couple’s embryos were mistakenly transferred into my body. Eight months later, I gave birth to a baby boy who we relinquished to his genetic parents a few minutes after delivery. Following …

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Medical error in a fertility clinic

Physician voices

Surgical error: The difference between mistake and complication

Dr. Martin Young

March 3, 2011Mar 3, 201118

One of the benefits, or aberrations, depending on your point of view, of the fee-for-service model is that we surgeons are remunerated for correcting our mistakes and complications. At first glance this seems wrong. But perspectives differ, and when a…

One of the benefits, or aberrations, depending on your point of view, of the fee-for-service model is that we surgeons are remunerated for correcting our mistakes and complications.

At first glance this seems wrong. But perspectives differ, and when a doctor has to deal with serious, undeserved complications and is self-employed he deserves to be compensated adequately. So what really is the difference between the two?

A complication may be described as …

Medical education

Medical students should not be liable for malpractice

Kevin Pho, MD

February 21, 2011Feb 21, 201194

Should medical students receive immunity from malpractice liability? That's an interesting question that's raised in a bill from Arizona. According to the Arizona Daily Sun, State lawmakers are moving to keep patients injured by medical students from being able to…

Should medical students receive immunity from malpractice liability?

That’s an interesting question that’s raised in a bill from Arizona.

According to the Arizona Daily Sun,

State lawmakers are moving to keep patients injured by medical students from being able to sue them.

But proponents said that won’t leave victims without recourse.

SB1429, awaiting full Senate action, would spell out that students are not liable for malpractice if they are under the supervision of a

…

Physician voices

Radiation treatment errors with Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)

Richard Leff, MD

February 4, 2011Feb 4, 2011

In a recent series of articles in the New York Times, Walt Bogdanich uncovered an alarming series of radiation treatment errors associated with implementation of new computerized treatment technologies such as Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Based on this article, reporting…

In a recent series of articles in the New York Times, Walt Bogdanich uncovered an alarming series of radiation treatment errors associated with implementation of new computerized treatment technologies such as Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT).

Based on this article, reporting hundreds of cases, some of them fatal, it appears that a variety of causes are associated with errors, including inadequate training of physicists and radiation therapists, difficulty physically validating computer-generated treatment …

Physician voices

The threat of malpractice means doctors cannot acknowledge their fallibility

Maggie Kozel, MD

February 2, 2011Feb 2, 201117

An excerpt from The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011). We all make mistakes. To err is human—unless you are a doctor. This is a lesson that began in med school.…

An excerpt from The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011).

We all make mistakes. To err is human—unless you are a doctor. This is a lesson that began in med school. If something went wrong, someone else was to blame. Attending physicians blamed the residents, who blamed the interns, who blamed whomever else was within range—med student, nurse, patient. We gave …

Physician voices

Patient-physician relationships in medical malpractice

Kathleen Clark, PhD

February 2, 2011Feb 2, 201111

I recently read a post from Jan Gurley, MD on here on KevinMD.com. Her opinion is that medical malpractice lawsuits are a “crap-shoot”; she notes that “malpractice lawsuits fail when it comes to medical errors-in both directions. People who’ve suffered…

I recently read a post from Jan Gurley, MD on here on KevinMD.com.

Her opinion is that medical malpractice lawsuits are a “crap-shoot”; she notes that “malpractice lawsuits fail when it comes to medical errors-in both directions. People who’ve suffered from errors both don’t sue, and lose suits, in the same percentages that people who sued have no suffered from errors.”

Assuming that information is correct for purposes of this …

Physician voices

Patient safety lapses in the hospital

David B. Nash, MD, MBA

January 31, 2011Jan 31, 20116

Earlier this month, at the third annual American Medical Student Association Patient Safety and Quality Leadership Institute, I listened with sympathy -- and, frankly, a certain amount of discomfort -- to a fourth-year medical student's account of his grandmother's recent…

Earlier this month, at the third annual American Medical Student Association Patient Safety and Quality Leadership Institute, I listened with sympathy — and, frankly, a certain amount of discomfort — to a fourth-year medical student’s account of his grandmother’s recent hospitalization at a well regarded inpatient facility in New York City.

Admitted with an initial diagnosis of pneumonia, Cole Zanetti’s grandmother languished in the hospital for almost four weeks.

As the medically …

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Patient safety lapses in the hospital

Malpractice and medical liability

Articles, page 23

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