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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE STATS
In "WALL OF SILENCE: The Untold Story of Medical Mistakes That Kill and Injure Millions of Americans," author Rosemary Gibson discusses how medical mistakes kill 100,000 Americans each year -- equivalent to a 747 plane crash daily. Rosemary explains the most common types of mistake and gives tips on how you can avoid becoming a statistic. Special issues for hospice and terminal care include the importance of watching medications closely and how the hospice interdisciplinary team may be a good model for how to prevent errors in other health care settings.
MORE STATS...
Approximately 80,000 people die in the United States each year due partly to medical malpractice - based only on hospital statistics, in an extensive study entitled "Patients, Doctors and Lawyers: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation in New York," published by the Harvard Medical Practice Study in 1990, a report to the State of New York -- and not including deaths from missed diagnoses, or medical negligence that occurred in clinics, private doctors' offices, or other treatment facilities.... Mark A. Schuster, M.D., Ph.D., Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Ph.D, and Robert H. Brook, M.D., Sc.D. revealed that autopsy studies showed rates between 35 and 40% of missed diagnoses with most resulting in death. Numerically, this is more than three fully loaded jumbo jets crashing every week with no survivors.
At the same time, surprisingly only 2% of people injured by physicians' negligence seek compensation through a lawsuit (according to a 1991 article in the New England Journal of Medicine). ....."Our data make clear, then, that the focus of legislative concern should be that the malpractice system is too inaccessible, rather than too accessible, to the victims of negligent medical treatment."
Many people do not realize that their physician is not required to be insured. If not insured, there is little hope of collecting compensation if the doctor injures an innocent patient through malpractice.
There is little effective regulation of quality by the state licensing board. Only about 2,000 doctors (one-third of 1%) are disciplined each year. Usually, the charges involve substance abuse or financial fraud. Rarely is a physician disciplined for injuring a patient through medical malpractice.
(Excerpted from Consumer Law site at http://www.consumerlaw/com/medical.html )
DRUGS, DEVICES, and DOCTORS
Anyone who has spent time in a doctors waiting room may eventually notice a young man or woman, smartly dressed, carrying a sample case on wheels, waiting to see the doctor. They usually get immediate access. These are ethical drug sales representatives who will be leaving free samples and pushing their product line. In an article in the New York Times (nytimes.com) by Paul Krugman on December 18th, it is noted that there seems more than a casual relationship between doctors and ethical drug and medical equipment sellers. If you go into your regular doctor, he or she will probably prescribe the latest drug hawked by the drug salesperson, whether or not it works on your symptoms. Curing the cause of your ailment is another matter which often occurs as result of invasive surgery or as a result of the bodys own defenses. Today we are an overmedicated society which may be better served holistically than by shoving another drug down a patient's throat. If you listen to TV commercials advising you to ask your doctor for a free drug sample, be sure to listen for the side effects, including death, from the pills youre encouraged to pop. The drug industry profits regardless of whether you get better.
Reprinted article first published on PRLaw Inc Lawyers and Business Executives website, on 1-4-06 at http://prlawinc.typepad.com/, ghost-written by Lori Carangelo to promote attorneys who defend victims of malpractice and civil rights violations.
Get a free, personalized drug interaction/dosing/safety check of your medication profile at: http://www.medicationadvisor.com
PROTECTING KIDS FROM MEDICAL MISTAKES
(CBS) Medical errors are a leading cause of death and injury in the United States, and they can happen to any patient, even children. So Early Show Medical Correspondent, Dr. Emily Senay, has some advice on how to keep your children safe. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, children in the hospital have about the same rate of medication errors and adverse drug events as adults. And the rate for potential adverse drug events was found to be about three times higher in children and even higher than that in babies in neonatal intensive care units. But there are some simple practices that can keep children out of harm's way. Here are some:
- Learn about your child's condition. Find out as much as you can about your child's illness by obtaining information from the pediatrician or nurse. You can also search the Internet for more information. But Dr. Senay warns to look only on legitimate Web sites for information. She says there are many sites that have erroneous information that could be more harmful than helpful.
- Discuss medications with the doctor. Any time your child is prescribed a new medication, ask your doctor about the possible side effects and when and how it should be taken. Dr. Senay says it is up to you to tell the physician about all the other drugs your child may be taking, which includes over-the-counter remedies. And be sure to know your child's weight because dosing instructions can change when the child's weight does.
- Make sure you can read the prescription. If you can't read what the doctor has written, there is a good chance the pharmacist can't either. But this is something that can be fixed. Simply ask the doctor to rewrite the prescription if you can't read it. Ask about measuring devices. Many children's medicines come in liquid form, and research has shown that many parents don't know how to properly measure them. Dr. Senay says using a kitchen spoon instead of a true teaspoon is one of the problems attributed to taking too much or too little of the prescribed medicine. So when you are picking up your child's prescription, ask the pharmacist for a measuring device (Marked syringes and measuring cups are two of the best devices.)
- Investigate the hospital. If it happens that your child needs surgery and you have a choice of hospitals, pick one that has a lot of experience in treating the condition of your child. You may even want to ask how many similar procedures are performed at the hospital each year. And when your child is in the hospital, make sure he is always wearing an ID bracelet. This can go a long way in preventing medication errors.
- Ask the doctor to explain the treatment plan. When a child is released from the hospital, make sure you know everything about how he is supposed to be treated. That includes knowing about medications and knowing when he can resume normal activities. These steps will decrease the likelihood of your child having to be re-hospitalized.
- Choose an advocate. Choose someone outside the immediate family and share with him all of the information about your child's condition. This way, if you are unable to speak for your child for some reason, the advocate will be able to step in and communicate effectively with medical professionals on your child's behalf.
Excerpted from CBS News (cbsnews.com) 2-27-03 report
RELATED LINKS
- AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (AMA) and Doctor Finder website - www.ama-assn.org
- MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAW (Summaries by State) - www.mcandl.com/states.html
- MERCK MANUAL ONLINE (Searchable) - www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual
- YOUR PRIVATELY HELD RECORDS - www.amfor.net/PrivateRecords/
