February 15, 2011

Patients Are Dying From Unheard Alarms

The Boston Globe reports that more than 2000 people died in a period of a little more than five years because of issues arising from alarms on hospitalized patients. The cause in many cases: personnel did not notice that the alarms were sounding or ignored them.

From the article:

The Globe enlisted the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health care research and consulting organization based in Pennsylvania, to help it analyze the Food and Drug Administration’s database of adverse events involving medical devices. The institute listed monitor alarms as the number-one health technology hazard for 2009. Its review found 216 deaths nationwide from 2005 to the middle of 2010 in which problems with monitor alarms occurred.

February 15, 2011

Hot Off the Press: Medical Malpractice and the President

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

From the AP at 1:43 PM EST on 2/15/11

Obama starts drive for medical malpractice reforms

WASHINGTON — Putting his own stamp on a long-standing Republican priority, President Barack Obama is launching a drive to overhaul state medical malpractice laws and cut down on wasteful tests doctors perform because they fear lawsuits.

Obama’s budget calls for $250 million in Justice Department grants to help states rewrite their malpractice laws in line with recommendations that his bipartisan debt reduction commission issued last year.

February 14, 2011

Mississippi Supreme Court Strikes Jury Verdict for Plaintiff Because of Failure to Supplement Expert Witness Disclosure

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Plaintiff’s accident reconstructionist (Webb) in an auto defect case was deposed about his proposed testimony. Thereafter, Webb signed an errata sheet that changed four of the variables he used to make his calculations. Among the changes were a change in the angle of the subject vehicle from 22 degrees to 44 degrees and an increase in the closing speed of the vehicle from 68 miles per hour to 78 miles per hour. He said these changes did not alter his ultimate conclusion on the change of velocity (delta-v) experienced by the vehicle occupants (35 miles per hour). The plaintiff did not supplement interrogatory responses concerning the expert’s testimony but simply sent the errata sheet to the defense.

The defense denied receiving the errata sheet. The defense expert testified that the delta-v was between 55 and 67 miles per hour. All parties agreed that a crash is not survivable with a delta-v in excess of 50 miles per hour.

At trial the expert said he completed the errata sheet because he realized after his deposition that he had made some mistakes in his analysis. He did not claim that the court reporter made an errors or that the changes were made to clarify his testimony.

February 11, 2011

Adjuster v. Lawyer

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

This video demonstrates the struggles that defense lawyers have with some claims adjusters.

February 10, 2011

Hospitals Fail to Follow-Up on Test Results

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A new study reveals that as many as 75 percent of hospital tests are not followed up and this failure can have serious consequences for patients, including delayed or missed diagnoses and even death.

The study is a "study of studies," and looked at 12 international studies. The work showed that between 1% and 75% of tests run on ER patients were not followed up after the patients were discharged. For inpatient tests the rate was 20% to 65%.

The study is published in the Feb. 8 edition of the journal BMJ Quality and Safety.

February 9, 2011

Doctor Turned Congressman Has A History of Malpractice Cases

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Here is an interesting story from the New York Times.

Malpractice Bill Raises Issues About a Lawsuit
By BARRY MEIER
Published: February 8, 2011

The lawmaker and retired obstetrician sponsoring a Congressional bill to sharply cut medical malpractice awards was involved in a $500,000 settlement of a malpractice lawsuit. The action was brought by a pregnant woman who charged that inappropriate care caused the loss of her fetus and other complications.

February 8, 2011

Adverse Event Protocol in Anesthesia

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has released this Adverse Event Protocol discussing what should be done when things go bad for a patient receiving or who is under anesthesia.

As the author of the plan explains, the "plan of action will help minimize damage to the patient (and also to the involved practitioners) as well as promote understanding and learning that will help prevent recurrence or repetition of the adverse event."

This is a very good piece of work by the APSF and they are to be commended for creating it.

February 1, 2011

Discovery Of an Expert’s Income From Testifying

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey has ruled that an expert should not be required to reveal details about his income from testifying as an expert witness.

In Gensollen v. Pareja, No. A-0401010T3, (N.J.A.D. 11/19/10), doctor who examined the plaintiff in a personal injury case admitted in a deposition that over 95% of his litigation work was for defendants. He also testified that testified that he conducted an average of eight to nine IMEs per week. He also testified that his two doctor orthopedic firm charges a fee of $895 per exam, but would impose additional charges depending on the extent of records and x-ray or MRI studies reviewed in a given case.

Plaintiff wanted more data to show bias, and the trial judge ordered defendant to produce, at his own cost, (a) documentation indicating the percentage of the firm’s findings in the past five (5) years that supported the premise that plaintiff suffered no type of permanent injury, (b) documentation indicating the percentage of the firm’s work that is defense related and the percentage of his work that is plaintiff related; and (c) documentation indicating what monies in the past five (5) years have been paid by defense attorneys to the firm for conducting medical exams.

January 27, 2011

Preventing and Management of Operating Room Fires

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation has created a video that discusses how to prevent and manage fires that occur in the operating room.

The video is 18 minutes long and was released in February 2010.

Here is what the organization says about operating room fires:

January 27, 2011

Lies, Damn Lies and Medical Malpractice Reform

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Tennessee consumers injured by medical negligence are facing a full assault on their right to trial by jury. Some members of the new General Assembly seem hell-bent on placing arbitrary caps on damages, notwithstanding the fact that medical malpractice lawsuits are down over 40% and malpractice insurer profits are soaring.

Max Kennerly, one of my favorite bloggers, has a great post on similar efforts in Congress. Here is an excerpt:

Even if we put aside the fact that, for every dollar spent on compensating the victims of medical negligence, more than $5 dollars in damage was caused by medical negligence, it bears repeating that the overall costs of compensating injured patients is so small that it the medical malpractice liability system does not restrict access to health care. Similarly, malpractice lawsuits have not been shown to change of physician behavior — so-called “defense medicine” — even in high-risk, high-liability cases like obstetricians’ decisions to perform c-sections when the baby shows signs of fetal distress.