Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

A new study by the Journal of the American Medical Association and analyzed at MedScape Today reveals that doctors usually fail to report their concerns about incompetent and impaired doctors to appropriate officials.

Most doctors admit that they have a duty to report any time they witness a doctor who for any reason is unable to provide the reasonable level of medical care that a patient deserves. However, the levels of actual reporting on negligent doctors fall far below the level that it should.

The survey which revealed these discouraging results was conducted last year, using a nationwide sample that included cardiologists, general surgeons, pediatricians, psychiatrists, internists, anesthesiologists, and family practitioners. Overall, 64% of respondents agreed that they have a professional obligation to report any fellow doctor who was incompetent or otherwise impaired to perform appropriate medical care.

Yet, one out of three of those doctors admitted that they had been confronted with a situation where they knew a colleague should not be providing care, but decided not to mention anything to anyone.

The medical researcher who conducted the survey mentioned the discouraging and dangerous effect of these failures to report, writing, “All health care professionals, from administrative leaders to those providing clinical care, must understand the urgency of preventing impaired or incompetent colleagues from injuring patients and the need to help these physicians confront and resolve their problems.”

The author admits that as it stands now patients are currently exposed to needless risk. A representative for the Chicago-based Institute for Ethics, American Medical Association admitted that the current system needs to be improved, calling for education, socialization of the problem, and better protection for medical whistle-blowers who risk backlash for confessing the substandard care being provided by institutions.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti are disheartened, but not surprised by these latest survey results. Our legal battles on behalf of medical malpractice victims has revealed that other doctors often allow patients to risk injury from medical error rather than step in and stop incompetent colleagues. That fact makes it all the more necessary for injured patients and their family and friends to contact their own representatives if they have been harmed by a negligent medical professional.

An Arlington soldier is dealing with the repercussions of a medical error in difficult way. The 21 year old airman lost his legs after a botched gallbladder surgery at a military hospital, according to the Star-Telegram. The victim had agreed to have laparoscopic gallbladder surgery after enduring stomach problems. During the procedure, an instrument being threaded through his stomach nicked his aorta artery, cutting off the flow to his legs. He was then transferred to another medical hospital, where both of his legs were amputated. His lawyer believes that this constituted gross violations of the US medical act. To read more about this specific medical malpractice case, please click the link.

Currently, however, the medical malpractice victim is in a battle with the U.S. court system. According to a 1950 Supreme Court decision, military personnel or their families are not allowed to collect damages from military doctors for medical negligence. This is known as Feres Doctrine. Not only will the medical malpractice victim not be able to recover for medical damages, his wife will be unable to file for loss of consortium. Currently, a Congressman is introducing legislation in order to change that policy.

The "Feres Doctrine” only applies to those active men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who suffer injury at the negligent hands of other members of the Armed Forces. Since military personnel staff military hospitals, this keeps those victims of medical negligence from being able to file suit in federal court. This doctrine greatly hinders the rights of military medical personnel. The Chicago medical malpractice attorneys of Levin & Perconti support recent efforts to invoke legislation that will override this doctrine.

Patient Safety experts at Johns Hopkins are taking their prescription for avoiding medical errors at hospitals beyond the “no fault, no blame” approaches. They are now calling for penalties for doctors and nurses who fail to comply with proven safety measures. The experts believe that penalties should apply when current “no blame” practices designed to prevent recurrences stall, and after warnings and counseling have failed to change health care workers’ behavior. The experts state that since medical mistakes continue to occur, its time to add some accountability and enforcement policies to address and stop unsafe practices. They are beginning a study hoping to decrease the 100,000 yearly deaths in the United States from infections picked up by people while undergoing treatment. Under their new system, health care workers who persistently fail to wash their hands before entering a patient’s room would be required to undergo mandatory training and re-education classes. Repeated failure to use and sign surgical checklists when inserting catheters would be punished as well. The medical world needs to understand that the right balance between no blame and individual accountability is that doing so will save lives. To read more about individual accountability, please click the link.

Patrick Malone wrote an article for the Huffington Post discussing the lack of accountability of doctors in medical malpractice. In the medical industry, a doctor will lose his or her license for only flagrant patterns of drug or alcohol abuse or other criminal behavior. The health care’s big safety emphasis in recent years has been to create a “no blame” culture that encourages reporting of medical errors and injuries by promises of confidentiality and non-punitive action. This idea was implemented so that medical errors can be corrected by implementing “systems” changes, such as checklists to make sure all appropriate steps are taken to prevent infections. Yet this system also allows physicians who repeatedly put their patients in jeopardy to ignore the rules. This occurs often when surgeons don’t follow the now routine practice of “signing the site” to prevent wrong-site surgery. This explains why an estimated 4,000 wrong-site surgeries are still performed every year in the United States. Some medical safety leaders are starting to call for accountability for rules violations. They stated that “every safe industry has transgressions that are firing offenses.” They proposed a short list of offenses in the hospital that call for suspension of a doctor’s practice for a limited time such as: failing to perform hand hygiene, skipping the sign-over to a new provider at the end of a shift, not marking the surgical site, and failing to use a checklist at the start of surgery to make sure everyone in the operating room knows the special needs of the patient. To read more about doctor accountability, please click the link.

A hospital, where officials say a nurse may have exposed more than 1,800 patients to HIV and hepatitis by reusing medical supplies, says that patients are currently being tested for HIV. Officials at the hospital said that 410 of the 1,851 potentially exposed patients have been tested. Earlier this month the hospital discovered that 59-year-old nurse was reusing IV tubing and saline bags during cardiac chemical stress tests. While hospital officials said that the chances of infection are low, it cannot be ruled out. Police are currently investigating this tremendous medical error. To read more about the medical malpractice, please click the link.

A recent investigation by the Hearst Company has drawn attention to the fact that approximately 200 thousand Americans will die this year from preventable medical errors and hospital infections. Currently 20 states have no medical error reporting system in place, five have voluntary ones and five more are developing reporting systems. Even in the 20 states that have the mandatory systems, hospitals report only a tiny percentage of their mistakes, standards vary wildly and enforcement is often nonexistent. The report also blames special interests for blocking progress in the area of medical reporting. A news medical correspondent described some of the most common medical miscues and offered advice to help keep one from being a victim of medical malpractice.

- Make sure surgeons personally sign or initial the skin of the patient over the area that’s being operated on; patients should remind all surgical personnel about the side and site of the procedure
- Patient’s should ask what every single medication is that they’re given while in the hospital and remind everyone who approaches them with drugs of any allergies they have
- Always look the surgeon in the eye before the operation to avoid any possibility of mistaken identity.

Communication is the greatest key to preventing medical errors which are oftentimes caused by
- Poor documentation
- Illegible handwriting
- Sleep deprivation
- Improper nurse to patient ratios

To read more about the medical mistake survey, please click the link.

According to a recent study, men and women are increasingly seeking the physician profession despite concerns that medical malpractice suits will send physicians “fleeing the profession.” The only states where physician growth did not outpace the population were states that have medical malpractice caps on jury awards. The article also found that “health-care quality and patient safety are far worse in states that have eliminated accountability through tort reform measures.”

Read more about medical malpractice litigation effects on the medical profession here.

A man won $17.5 million in a medical malpractice suit against a doctor who failed to treat him correctly after contracting MRSA. The plaintiff contracted the hospital borne infection after having ulcer surgery. Due to the doctor’s failure to treat his infection with proper antibiotics, the man lost both his arms and legs from the MRSA infection.

Due to state medical malpractice caps, the plaintiff only received $250,000.

Read more about the MRSA medical malpractice lawsuit here.

According to Robert Oshel, former associate director of the Division of Practitioner Data Banks at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, doctors need to worry more about limiting malpractice claims and not damage awards in order to prevent medical malpractice insurance premiums from rising. This is in response to doctors who wish to limit awarded damages in order to decrease insurance premiums. He counters, stating studies show “that the majority of dollars paid out for malpractice result from the negligent actions of the very small portion of physicians who face multiple malpractice payments.” He suggests his state should “restrict or revoke the licenses of physicians with a record of multiple malpractice awards.”

Read more about Oshel’s opinion on limiting medical malpractice.

The failure to diagnose acute appendicitis is one of the most common medical mistakes leading to medical malpractice lawsuits. As many as 30% of patients with acute appendicitis were initially misdiagnosed by a physician at a pervious medical examination. The most common diagnosis in missed appendicitis cases is Agastroenteritis. Delayed or missed diagnosis of acute appendicitis can have serious consequences including death, recurrent small bowel obstruction, impaired fertility in women, and extended hospital stays. Acute appendicitis should be considered a possible diagnosis with all complaints of abdominal pain. For the full article, click here.

In 1999 a survey was conducted by the Institute of Medicine that reported between 48,000 and 98,000 Americans dying yearly as a result of preventable medical errors. Specifically, medication errors and neglect were to blame for the deaths. Shockingly, this makes hospital errors the eighth highest cause of death in the United States, above car crashes. The most mistakes occurred in hospitals run by the Veterans Health Administration. Apparently almost ten years has made little difference in VA hospitals, as lawsuits and complaints against them are numerous. A possible explanation for the high rate of errors is that VA doctors do not have to pay their own malpractice insurance since the government pays out for any harm caused by a doctor’s negligence. Further, the caliber of VA doctors may be lower than the general population; take, for example; Dr. Veizaga-Mendez, who was hired by the VA even though he had a history of medical malpractice lawsuits and claims against him. Hopefully the onslaught of medical malpractice lawsuits and allegations will instigate a change in VA hospitals.

Read more here.

Recently, a 13-year-old Illinois boy died at a Chicago hospital after being brought there with very severe signs of neglect including ulcers, one of which was seeping pus. The boy was being taken care of by his mother and three nurses for various conditions including cerebral palsy. One of the nurses, Morris Lee Brinkley, found him when she started her shift lying in his own feces and urine in the mornings, yet still failed to make a call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS"), which might have saved his life. The other nurse, Loren Brown, did not call DCFS either, though she knew the boy's mother had failed to take him to his doctor's appointments. Both nurses claim that they informed their supervisor of the child's condition, but she denies any such knowledge, further, when the nurses did not see any reaction, they should have made the call to DCFS themselves. The boy’s mother, although not a medical professional, is far from without fault however, as she had a heavy hand in his neglect. The boy’s death has been ruled a homicide, and his mother and the two nurses have been charged with felony neglect and failure to report a neglected child. The extreme level of neglect that was reached could have been prevented had there not been a nursing error: by failing to report the abuse, Brinkley and Brown, regardless of their hand in the actual neglect, made a deadly error in judgment, and their prosecution may show that medical malpractice was involved.

Read more here.

Condell, Lake County’s largest hospital, may soon be for sale to the highest bidder. Condell and Chicago-based Advocate Health have been in talks about Advocate buying Condell to expand Advocate’s presence in Lake County. Advocate has signed an agreement to buy Condell for $180 Million. Condell has faced financial trouble in recent years, losing upwards of $20 Million in patient revenue. Often, when hospitals lose money they may cut costs in patient care which can lead to medical malpractice lawsuits. State and Federal regulators still need to approve the deal.

Read more here.

A US Navy veteran has won his medical malpractice lawsuit against a Veterans’ Affairs hospital doctor after a series of failed operations left him permanently disabled, receiving a verdict of $622,739. The man, who retired from Chicago-based Smurfit-Stone Container Corp in 2001, brought his medical malpractice lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The man originally entered the VA hospital for a hernia operation during which the doctors mistakenly severed an artery in his stomach, leading to 6 additional surgeries, a staph infection, and pneumonia.

For more information, read here.

Around 47 million Americans don't have health care, but even those that do agree that problems in the United States healthcare system need reform. In a recent article, 10 health care experts offered their personal suggestions on how to improve the country's situation.

1. Mend the medical schools
2. Single-payer insurance (creating a national system)
3. Individual, not company, plans
4. Divert the dollar to the doc
5. Pay for the care of populations, not events (high quality preventive care)
6. Cut costs for med students
7. Eliminate insurance all together
8. More health centers (affordable, community health centers)
9. Stimulating positive-sum competition (giving more info to providers and consumers)
10. Keep it low-tech (low-tech approaches to preventive healthcare)

Click here to read the descriptions of the experts who offered these ideas, in addition to more information about each view.

A Cook County, Illinois jury recently awarded the family of a victim of medical malpractice $7,000,000. The victim died of a pulmonary embolism after knee surgery at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The man's wife alleged that the negligence of a doctor and a physician's assistant caused the untimely death of her husband. The health care providers failed to review the patient's records, overlooking a medical history of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. As a result, the Illinois man was not administered the proper medication in a timely manner, allowing the formation of blood clots and allowing other blood clots to continue growing. This medical mistake ultimately led to the patient's wrongful death.

The Paris Regional Medical Center, a Paris, Texas hospital owned by Essent Healthcare, Inc., has filed a defamation lawsuit against a blogger who has been critical of the medical care that the Paris Regional Medical Center has provided. At this stage in the litigation, the Paris Regional Medical Center’s main goal has been to unmask the identity of the anonymous blogger. After that, the Paris Regional Medical Center hopes to shut down the web site and curb the criticism that the blog, the-paris-site, has generated against the Paris Regional Medical Center.

Click here for the full article.

Continue reading "Hospital tries to silence critical blogger" »

The American Cancer Society has recently produced an ad campaign stressing the need of adequate quality health care for Americans in order to lower cancer death rates. Among the poorly insured and uninsured, cancer is most often detected at an advanced stage, too frequently proving fatal. The American Cancer Society's goals of reducing cancer death and incidence rates by 2015, beginning in 1990, will not be met unless access to screening and treatment becomes available to all patients. The society's chief executive stated that, "lack of access will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco," unless the health care system is amended. The delay in diagnosing poorly or uninsured patients causes them to bear the costs of more expensive and difficult treatments. Within families afflicted with cancer, one in four will use most or all of their savings, including one in five insured families, to fight the disease. 47 million Americans do not have health insurance, and millions more only have limited coverage. Access to health care for all Americans will lower cancer death rates, among innumerable other health ailments.

Click here for the full article

The search for the solution to reaching a better balance between cost and quality of doctors and hospitals has reached an important turning point. A recent court ruling opens consumer access to specific data from the Medicare claims database of doctors. A consumer group sued the Health and Human Services Department asking for the disclosure of this information involving about 40 million patients (who will not be disclosed) and over 700,000 doctors. An appeal of this ruling seems unlikely as one of the Bush administration's initiatives is to improve price and quality transparency of medical providers. Furthermore, support to open the Medicare database for public access is rising in the Senate. This ruling will allow patients to see how many of a certain type of procedure a doctor has performed successfully and if the tests ordered by doctors are necessary, which will help to reduce the cost of treatment.

Click here for the full article

"Sicko - Musings on Healthcare From an Insider" is a new blog that has proven to be informative, relevant and straightforward. Author and speaker Anthony Cirillo, a healthcare expert, advocates for elder adults, working to assure their dignity and respect. Recent postings have included information about healthcare reform and doctor fees.

Click here to read the blog