Day On Torts : Tennessee Injury Lawyer & Attorney : John Day : Personal Injury, Accidents : Serving Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville

The Commercial Appeal wrote an interesting story on medical malpractice litigation in today's paper.  Read it here.

An excerpt:

Nationwide, the number of payments physicians made for malpractice claims fell to 11,037 last year -- the lowest figure since the National Practitioner Data Bank began tracking data in 1990. Adjusted for inflation, the total $3.6 billion they paid was the second-lowest sum on record.

I was interviewed by the reporter and gave him the data that readers of this blog have seen about how few medical malpractice claims are filed in relation to the number of malpractice injuries and deaths and how the new statute has impacted the number of case filings.   He was kind enough to accurately quote me on one point:

"What's happening to all the other dead people? All the injured people? The cases just aren't being brought," said Nashville attorney John Day. "Is there a problem with too many lawsuits? I could make the argument that there's not enough."

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The Washington Supreme Court has struck down the filing of a certificate of merit in medical malpractice cases in Washington state.   The certificate is required by RCW 7.70.150.

The opinion said that the statute was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of powers between the Legislature and the Judiciary and it denied medical malpractice victims equal access to the courts. 

The Court said that

“Requiring medical malpractice plaintiffs to submit a certificate prior to discovery hinders their right of access to courts. Through the discovery process, plaintiffs uncover the evidence necessary to pursue their claims. Obtaining the evidence necessary to obtain a certificate of merit may not be possible prior to discovery, when health care workers can be interviewed and procedural manuals reviewed . ...  It is the duty of the courts to administer justice by protecting the legal rights and enforcing the legal obligations of the people. Accordingly, we must strike down this law

The case is Putman v. Wenatchee Valley Med. Ctr.,  Docket No. 80888-1 (September 17, 2009).  Here is the Court's opinion.  Here is the concurring opinion.

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A reader sent me an article in September - October 2009 issue of Harvard Magazine  that discusses the work of Dr. Atul Gawande.   Dr. Gawande is very interested in patient safety.  One of his interests is the use of medical checklists, a subject I have addressed in a previous post.

Apparently,  Gawande and his colleagues developed a checklist for surgery patients.  The list, described in the article as addressing "rudimentary tasks" (e.g. confirming the patient's identity), had some amazing results.  In one year of use in 8 different hospitals around the world, the rate of complications had dropped one-third; surgicial-site infections by half, and deaths of surgical patients by nearly half.

Seven countries and more than two dozen states require the use of surgical checklists.  One wonders why every state in the Union does not require them.

Gawande's team is developing other checklists for "perinatal care, emergency care, trauma care, burn care, and for managing a particularly troublesome type of bacterial infection."

Gawande described the  work in this area as consisting of "ridiculously primitive insights."  He said in an article he wrote for the New Yorker:  "But, really, does it take [distinguished professional degrees] to figure out what house movers, wedding planners, and tax accountants figured out ages ago?"  

By the way, I have not identified the reader who sent me the article because I do not know that he wants to be identified.  You know who you are.  If you want me to give you credit, let me know and I will do so.  Whether you want credit or not, please keep sending me information - I really appreciate it.  As I am sure you guessed, I am not a regular reader of Harvard Magazine and my college don't publish no such thing, least as far as I know.

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