Day on Torts

That title is so misleading. Today’s hearing has nothing to do with modifying the health care system to prevent injuries and death from medical malpractice.

Today’s hearing will determine whether the Civil Practice Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will vote-out a bill to restrict the rights of people who have valid claims. We have come to the point in this state and this country where “reforms” restrict the rights of ordinary people and give more power to those who already have it. We call this activity “reform” because “power grab” or “wealth protection action” is too wordy.

I am scheduled to testify today. The good news is that Chairman Rob Briley (D- Nashville) is determined to have a fair hearing on the issues. The Chairman chaired another committee last year that basically determined that all of the hype about the need to restrict the rights of people with meritorious claims was just that – hype.

Well, the Civil Practice Subcommittee met today but the sponser of the two “reform” bills asked that the bills be “rolled” (continued) until next week. The sponser indicated he wanted to amend the bill to address some of the issues I raised in the hearing of 12 days ago. Next Tuesday is the last day this committee will be holding hearings for this legislative session so it will be an all-or-nothing day.

I will be back there next Tuesday to testify. Medical malpractice victims will also be present. AARP will be presenting testimony against the bill and, presumably, so will the TBA. I will let you know what happens. If you want to help email me.

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses has issued a new study concerning medical malpractice in our nation’s hospitals.

This is scary stuff. The reports says that each year “one in twenty in-patients will be given the wrong medication, 3.5 million will get an infection from someone who did not wash his or her hands or take appropriate precautions, and 195,000 will die because of mistakes made while they’re in the hospital.” The study goes on to say that 60% of medication errors are caused by mistakes in interpersonal communication.

The study explains that the majority of health care providers break rules, make mistakes, or apppear to behave incompetently, but less than 1 in 10 say anything about it.