Secrecy Shields Medical Mishaps From Public View

According to a national investigation by Hearst Newspapers, many hospitals are still failing to report medical errors even after a report issued in 1999 outlined the need for reforms. The report, written by 22 physicians, called for improvements in patient safety and a nationwide system to track hospital errors. The newspaper's investigation found that ten years after the report many hospitals have been slow to institute change and lobby groups have fought against a national registry for hospital errors. San Francisco Chronicle

Errors Common In Cancer Diagnosis

It’s hard enough battling cancer, but a new report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 25, No 31 (November 1), 2007: pp. 5009-5018 maintains that doctors make diagnosis errors in more than one in ten cases of the disease. The report says in many of these cases, the error resulted in significant harm.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh say, until now, not much has been written or studied on cancer misdiagnosis. In particular, doctors have not had a good grasp of how common the problem is and what impact it has had on patient health.
When the research team looked at diagnosis mistakes among cancer patients at four hospitals, they found the frequency of errors ranged from 1.79 percent to 9.42 percent for gynecological cases and from 4.87 percent to 11.8 percent for other cases. They found that some errors were significantly linked to particular hospitals but did not name them.
The report said nearly half the mistakes were caused by misinterpreting test results, while the rest were mostly attributable to poor sampling of tissue.
The researchers said they found a significant number of the errors, nearly half , had traumatic consequences for the patient. Harm from the errors ranged from putting the patient through unnecessary tests, to losing a limb, to death.
The authors of the study say they compiled the research in an effort to help those who want to standardize cancer diagnostic and treatment methods.

Huge Medical Malpractice Study: Damage Limits Not Warranted

Americans for Insurance Reform released a study earlier this week showing that in recent years, doctor premiums and medical malpractice claims have overwhelmingly dropped, while the profits of the medical malpractice insurance industry have soared. Significantly, the study concludes that placing further limits on the liability of negligent doctors and unsafe hospitals would be unjustifiable, and would put almost no dent in our country’s health care costs.
AIR’s report, True Risk: Medical Liability, Malpractice Insurance and Health Care, is by Gillian Cassell-Stiga and Joanne Doroshow of the Center for Justice & Democracy, and actuary J. Robert Hunter, who is Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), former Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Texas, and former Federal Insurance Administrator under Presidents Carter and Ford.

In describing the study’s findings, Hunter said, “Thirty years of inflation-adjusted data show that medical malpractice premiums are the lowest they have been in this entire period. This is in no small part due to the fact that claims have fallen like a rock, down 45 percent since 2000. The periodic premium spikes we see in the data are not related to claims but to the economic cycle of insurers and to drops in investment income. Since prices have not declined as much as claims have, medical malpractice insurer profits are higher than the rest of the property casualty industry, which has been remarkably profitable over the last five years. -AIR

The findings apply equally to states that have placed major tort restrictions on victims of medical malpractice and to states that have not.

The study adds that because medical malpractice premiums amount to less than 0.5% of overall health care costs, with medical malpractice claims amounting to 0.2% (yes, these are tiny decimals) of health care costs, limiting liability any more will simply not have a significant effect on these health care costs. “If Congress completely eliminated every single medical malpractice lawsuit,” it says, “including all legitimate cases, as part of health care reform, overall health care costs would hardly change, but the costs of medical error and hospital-induced injury would remain and someone else would have to pay.”

All of this only confirms that removing or further limiting medical liability would mean robbing patients of the only meaningful check and balance they have on the impossible monstrosity of a system that American health care has become. Limiting liability is not a way to save the country money, and it’s not fair for patients who are wrongfully injured or who lose their lives due to negligence.
Read AIR’s full study here.

Malpractice Payouts Fall Across the Country

Medical malpractice payouts continued to fall across the country last year and account for a minuscule portion of health-care costs, the watchdog group Public Citizen reports.

Using data from the federal government's National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), the group found the number of payouts declined for the third straight year. In addition, the 11,037 payments recorded in 2008 were 31% fewer than the average number of payments recorded by the NPDB in all previous years.

That doesn't mean safety efforts have been successful, the report asserts. “There is no evidence that medical errors have declined. Rather than pointing to safer medical care, the reduction almost certainly means that there are ever more malpractice victims not receiving compensation.”

The cost of the malpractice liability system, measured broadly by adding all malpractice insurance premiums, fell to less than 0.6% of the $2.1 trillion in total national health-care costs in 2006, the most recent data available, according to the Public Citizen analysis. The cost of actual malpractice payments fell to less than one-fifth of 1% of all health-care costs in 2006.

Public Citizen doubts national tort reform will have much impact on spiraling health costs. “Any way you measure it, medical liability accounts for less than 1% of the country's health-care costs, and the vast majority of victims receive no compensation whatsoever,” said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division.Click here for the full report.

Elder Abuse on the Rise in California

Elder Abuse in California has increased 18 percent in the past five years. Experts worry that the soured economy has put vulnerable seniors at greater risk for abuse.
Here is how to recognize some of the signs of physical or financial abuse.

• Unusual bank activity, such as ATM withdrawals when the individual cannot go to the bank.
• Any untreated medical condition.
• Changes in spending patterns, buying unneeded items.
• Checks or other documents signed when the elder cannot write or understand what is being signed.
• Poor hygiene or unkempt and foul-smelling condition.
• Unexplained bruises or welts; injuries that conflict with the explanation.

Without intervention, abuse can escalate. When in doubt about whether abuse has occurred, err on the side of caution and report it. 24 hour abuse hot line (800) 491-7123, (California only).

If you believe a relative or friend has been the victim of elder abuse or nursing home neglect, California elder abuse attorney Steven Weinberg is available to provide a free consultation to answer your questions and explain your legal rights. (888) 321-1022. http://www.sjweinberglaw.com/

More Than 100,000 Preventable Patient Deaths Occur In Hospitals Every Year

According to the National Institute of Medicine, more than 100,000 patients die in hospitals every year as a result of avoidable errors. Errors may be committed by doctors, nurses, radiology techs, pathology secretaries, aides, food service workers, computer programmers, lab techs, or any of the more than 100 employee classifications working in hospitals. See the full report of the National Institute of Health, entitled To Err Is Human, www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309068371

Prescription Errors Rising

There are as many as 7,000 deaths annually in the United States from incorrect prescriptions, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. The same organization estimates that as many as 5 percent of the 3 billion prescriptions filled each year are incorrect.
With the number of prescriptions expected to climb to 4 billion this year and the number of pharmacists steadily decreasing, there are bound to be "problems down the road," according to one expert.
What You Can Do It's not easy for consumers to protect themselves against such errors, but there are steps you can take:
1. Read the prescription your doctor gives you aloud. Ask the physician to confirm it.
2. Verify the dosages and drug names with your doctor.
3. Before going to the pharmacy, write down the dosage and drug names.
4. Go to a reputable pharmacy, one that has more than a single pharmacist working with clerk and technician helpers. You can contact your state pharmacy board for information. Some will tell you if a pharmacist has been disciplined in the past.
5. When you pick up the prescription, check the labels and make sure the dosages and drug names match what you have written down.
These steps are not foolproof but they're a good start.