Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

HealthGrades recently examined 40.6 million Medicare hospitalization records in preparation for their 2007 report. The results show that the gap between the best and worst performing hospitals is growing. For instance, there is a 60% lower chance of dying at one of the nation’s 5-star rated hospitals than at one of the 1-star rated hospitals. If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-star hospital across 18 of the procedures and diagnoses studies, 302,403 Medicare lives could have potentially been saved from 2003 through 2005. 50% of the potentially preventable deaths were associated with 4 diagnoses: Heart Failure, Community Acquired Pneumonia, Sepsis, and Respiratory Failure.

For the Press Release.
For the HealthGrades report and website which also has a free hospital rating checker.

Public Citizen, a national patient advocacy group, recently ranked one state's online directory of physicians’ malpractice and disciplinary histories top in the nation. The website provides profiles of that New Jersey's nearly 30,000 licensed physicians and contains detailed information on medical malpractice lawsuits and payments, hospital disciplinary actions, and conviction information. Hopefully more states will be soon to follow the creation of adequately thorough physician directories.

For the full article.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has placed certain medical abbreviations on the “do-not-use” list because of their probability of misinterpretation, leading to dosing errors and serious medical malpractice. For exam, “IU” is often used by physicians or others in the medical field to mean “international unit.” However, it is often mistaken for “IV” (intravenous) or the number 10, which could lead to serious mistakes in administering medicine. The Official “Do Not Use” list applies, at a minimum, to all orders and all medication-related documentation that is handwritten or on pre-printed forms. Unfortunately, the medical field is not sufficiently complying: failure to substantially eliminate the use of such abbreviations is one of the most frequent non-compliance findings during Joint Commission reviews.

For the Official “Do Not Use” List.

A jury recently decided that the two doctors that performed surgery on the man to correct his ailment only made it worse and awarded the man $3.9 million. The victim suffered from arcuate ligament syndrome and underwent surgery in 2002 to alleviate his discomfort. The surgery made his pains worse. Later surgeons were unable to get to his artery and fix his pain because the scar tissue from the botched surgery was so dense. The victim had to undergo 4 more surgeries after the medical malpractice and is currently unable to work because of his ailments.

For the full article.

The victim is almost two years old and each passing week continues to be another milestone in his life. The victim’s mother said that the doctors initially said he would live two days, then two weeks, then two months. When the child was born, his doctor committed medical malpractice by giving him carbon dioxide instead of oxygen. This malpractice permanently damaged the child’s brain. He cannot speak, move, eat, or even breathe on his own due to the birth injury. Taking care of him costs $450,000 a year. For those costs, a federal judge awarded the child’s family $16.5 million – the largest damage verdict ever ruled in Hawaii for a single person.

The Medical Center has a long history of medical malpractice. Between January 1995 and July 2005, there were 331 malpractice claims against the Center. Although the Medical Center has accepted responsibility, no disciplinary action has been taken against the Center.

For the full article.

A medical malpractice lawsuit was recently filed against a cancer doctor who told a 65 year-old woman that her breast cancer had returned and prescribed chemotherapy for treatment. A second opinion told the 65 year-old that she had no evidence of recurrent breast cancer. State regulators have found 19 other patients allegedly mistreated or misdiagnosed by the cancer specialist. The state claims that the patients were needlessly or excessively exposed to toxic cancer-fighting agents that endangered their health. For now, the doctor is still practicing! A January hearing before the state Medical Licensure Commission will issue the final authority over the validity of the doctor’s license.

For the full article.

Medical shortcuts used in internal communications, telephone and verbal prescriptions, labels, medical administration records, and pharmacy entry screens can lead to serious medical malpractice in harmful medication errors. The Institute for Safe Medical Practices has released the most frequently misinterpreted abbreviations and dose designations. The list was compiled from the Medication Error Reporting Program. Certain abbreviations have been so error-prone that they have been put on the “do-not-use list” by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

For the list of abbreviations to avoid in the medical field.

A company called Neurometrix recently introduced a system that checks patients for nerve disease and has targeted the system for use by general practitioners. Its introduction to the market has not been painless.

Continue reading "Expensive new nerve test stirs controversy " »

An annual conference on ensuring quality in long-term care will be hosted by the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) on October 22-24. The NCCNHR is an advocate in the fight against nursing home abuse and neglect. Its conference features networking opportunities, interactive and educational sessions, and presentations by nationally recognized experts, including Erin Brockovich.

To register for the Conference.

Before digging in one’s pocket and paying a great deal on pharmaceuticals, consumers must research about the drugs they are prescribed because they could be ineffective. Or, they may be prescribed only because the prescribing physician made a deal with the pharmaceutical company. Here are some shocking statistics about the nature of the pharmaceutical industry:

1. Drug companies spend more than twice as much money on marketing than they do on research!
2. From 1998 to 2003, 487 new drugs came into the market, but only one-third of them contained new ingredients!
3. In 2001, drug companies paid for 60 percent of doctors’ continuing education costs.

1. The average doctor spends 40 percent of his time acquiring information, 40 percent disseminating it, and only 20 percent actually practicing medicine.
2. Only 1 in 5 patients obtain a second opinion. Of those who do, one-third of them have a significant change in treatment.
3. Patients in private hospital rooms are 45 percent less likely to contract hospital-acquired infections.
4. There are 2 million hospital-acquired infections per year, resulting in 92,000 deaths.
5. The four most typical entry points of infection in a hospital are: surgical wound, ventilator, IV, or urinary catheter.
6. About 42 percent of all heart attack patients receive overdoses of blood-thining medicines that can lead to fatal bleeding.
7. About 40 percent of bariatric weight loss patients experience a complication within six months of surgery. Even with this startling statistic, there is no law requiring bariatric weight loss surgeons to have special training for the surgery!
8. About 75 percent of hospital bills have overcharges. The average overcharge is $1000!

For more information about what hospitals do not tell you.

State medical boards have the responsibility to discipline physician misconduct, including physician medical malpractice. Historically, boards have been reluctant to publicize disciplinary actions, but now almost all states provide some form of information online. However, Public Citizen discovered that most medical board websites are not completely forthcoming!

Continue reading "Public Citizen report: Most state medical board websites withhold valuable information" »

The death of a 94 year-old woman due to numerous injuries caused by being pulled out of bed was recently ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner's office. When the victim was pulled out of bed in May 2005, she incurred many injuries, including a broken femur. Her death resulted from complications stemming from the injuries. The family of the 94 year-old woman has brought a nursing home negligence lawsuit against the facility, charging that the facility should have protected the 94 year-old from the person who caused the injuries.

To read the full article.

The PBS Series, Remaking American Medicine explores the quality crisis in the medical industry. The four programs air on PBS Thursdays, October 5-26, 2006, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). Peabody Award and Emmy Award-winner John Hockenberry, formerly of NBC and NPR, hosts.

The Line-up:

PROGRAM 1 - SILENT KILLER profiles individuals who are committed to fixing a health care system that is estimated to kill up to 98,000 people a year.

PROGRAM 2 - FIRST DO NO HARM focuses on efforts to eliminate hospital-acquired infections and medication errors.

PROGRAM 3 - THE STEALTH EPIDEMIC looks at groundbreaking efforts to create effective chronic disease management programs.

PROGRAM 4 - HAND IN HAND shows how a unique partnership between patients, families and providers is transforming a teaching hospital.

For more information.

Tom Baker’s book, The Medical Malpractice Myth, released last November, illustrates why claims of frivolous lawsuits are overblown and over hyped.

To view the excerpt.

Levin & Perconti has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Chicago, Illinois alleging the negligent delivery of a baby. The lawsuit alleges that during the birth, the doctors failed to perform a sonogram which would have revealed that the baby was macrosomic, or of higher fetal weight than anticipated. As a result, the doctors failed to recommend a Caesarean section delivery which would have been appropriate given the mother’s pre-existing history of gestational diabetes and the baby’s size.

Instead, the baby developed a condition called shoulder dystocia which results when one or both of the shoulders do not properly enter the pelvis during delivery. The baby suffered injury to her left brachial plexus during the delivery process, resulting in her having Erb's palsy and left arm paralysis. The doctors failed to utilize appropriate disimpaction maneuvers which would have freed the trapped shoulder.

On behalf of a mother whose child suffered brain damage during labor and delivery, Levin & Perconti filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The lawsuit alleges that the nursing staff failed to inform the mother of prolonged labor and of the baby’s failure to descend after observing fetal bradycardia. Fetal bradycardia occurs when a fetus’ heart rate drops during the birthing process.

The suit also alleges that the physicians failed to timely perform the delivery of the baby after she failed to progress during the prolonged second stage of labor. Because of the negligent acts of the personnel at Lutheran General, the baby suffered hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a form of brain damage.

In some states, non-economic damages are limited in a medical malpractice lawsuit to $500,000. Contrary to what lawmakers promised and despite this cap, physicians are still avoiding emergency on-call duty due to malpractice costs. The reason for the physician avoidance is because their insurance has not declined. Unfortunately, patients are feeling the effects.

Many cities with outstanding medical resources and top ranked trauma centers are consistently transferring their critically ill patients to smaller cities. At least two people have died as a result of delayed care! Hospitals routinely close their doors to medical emergencies, because of lack of intensive care beds or low staffing issues.

Once again, state experience proves that medical malpractice caps only really work to limit justice. Unfortunately, the Illinois legislature also passed a "tort reform" in 2005. Illinois currently limits non-economic damages in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits against individual doctors to $500,000 and against hospitals to $1 million.
To read the full article.

An Illinois woman was awarded $2.1 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a hospital whose substandard medical care caused her to suffer a stroke. The doctors could have prevented her stroke by administering a clot-busting drug when the woman entered the emergency room.

For the full article.

A jury recently awarded a widow and her five children $2.2 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit accusing the treating physician and nurse of negligence in the death of the 34 year-old husband. The suit focused on the care received by the husband in the days preceding his untimely death. The man went to see his doctor after having chills, shortness of breath, a high temperature, and leg pain. He received painkillers and muscle relaxers. Three days later, he returned to the doctor’s office and again received no exam or lab analysis, returning home with painkillers. The following day the 34 year-old died of organ failure related to a strep infection. Unfortunately, state law in this case hinders justice and the award will be reduced to $1.7 million, the state cap for medical malpractice lawsuits.

For the full article.

Last week, a Chicago jury awarded $31 million to the estate of a man who died as a result of receiving the wrong prescription from a Walgreen’s pharmacy. The award consisted of $25 million in punitive damages. The Cook County jury ruled that Walgreens showed "utter indifference" to people's safety by not keeping accurate track of its medications, thereby allowing a pharmacist to illegally steal and take drugs for eight years before incorrectly filling a Schaumburg man's prescription, leading to his death.

The 77-year-old man took a gout medication called Allopurinol, which he phoned into the Shaumburg Walgreens in January of 2001. The pharmacist James Wilmes, filled the prescription with Glipizide, a diabetes medication. After the man took the pills for two days, he went into a diabetic coma, subsequent kidney failure and eventually died.
It was also revealed that Wilmes had signed a statement when he was fired admitting to taking uppers and other drugs - at a total theft of 86,000 pills over eight years.

Levin & Perconti is currently prosecuting a case involving a prescription mis-filling at a Walgreens pharmacy in Puerto Rico. A 59-year-old man underwent surgery for a liver transplant at the University of Chicago. Doctors prescribed an anti-organ rejection medication called Prograf, which the patient was to take 5mg doses twice daily. The pharmacy mistakenly filled the prescription for 0.5mg, or one-tenth of the prescribed amount. The pharmacy made the same mistake a month later when the patient refilled his prescription, again giving him just one-tenth of the amount prescribed.

The Plaintiff was hospitalized at the University of Chicago Hospital and was told he rejected his liver as a result of being mis-medicated and would need a second liver transplant in order to survive. The transplant for the second liver was successfully completed, however the man required multiple hospitalizations.

Illinois suspended the dental license of the dentist whose 5 year-old patient tragically died due to his improper administering of anesthesia. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said that the dentist failed to monitor the 5 year-old girl’s blood pressure, pulse, and respiration during her visit. The dentist gave the 5 year-old multiple medications, including intravenous doses of Valium, but did not notice her comatose condition until the girl’s mother alerted him. The dentist’s records even state that the 5 year-old was “alert and responsive” when she was discharged. For his gross medical malpractice, the dentist also faces heavy fines.

For the full article.

The $500,000 cap on medical malpractice lawsuit damages was ruled unconstitutional by an Appeals Court because it does not provide justice for victims. The $500,000 medical malpractice lawsuit cap was imposed in 1975. The maximum reward at that time would be worth only $160,000 today. The medical malpractice lawsuit is posed to be in front of the Louisiana Supreme Court soon.

In 1995, the Illinois state legislature passed a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits which, in 1997, was also held to be unconstitutional. In 2005, the Illinois legislature again passed a cap limiting the rights of citizens, limiting non-economic damages against an individual in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits to $500,000 and non-economic damages against hospitals to $1 million.

For the full article.