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Cleveland Personal Injury Law Blog

Medication errors at home may seriously endanger patients

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Prescription Errors on Friday, May 17, 2013.

Every medication available poses potential risks to patients. Some can cause serious side effects while others may interact negatively with various other prescriptions. In addition, failure to measure out proper dosages can leave patients with too little or too much of a given drug, which can cause a great deal of harm as well.

Not all medication errors occur when doctors scribble instructions on a prescription pad, nurses administer drugs in a hospital or when pharmacists fill these drugs. A recent study explores just how often these errors occur at home.

Prominent politician has risky weight loss surgery with risky doc

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Monday, May 13, 2013.

Over the past decade or so, bariatric (weight loss) surgery has become one of the most popular elective surgeries in the Country. An increasing number of overweight and obese individuals in Ohio and around the country have turned to bariatric surgery as a way to shed weight, get fit and control weight-related medical conditions such as high blood pressure and type II diabetes.

But not all bariatric procedures are created equal; nor does every doctor have the level of skill and expertise required to do these procedures safely. Ever since news broke that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently had lap-band surgery, many have pointed out that both the procedure he chose and the clinic he worked with may have each been risky choices.

 

Diagnostic errors are among the most frequent medical mistakes

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Friday, May 10, 2013.

There are many things that can go wrong during the process of delivering healthcare. The types of medical malpractice that often make the news are egregious errors such as wrong-site surgery or medication errors. But far more prevalent (and often far more harmful) are diagnostic errors.

It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of medical mistakes are related to incorrect, missed or delayed diagnosis. These mistakes often go undiscovered until the patient has incurred serious harm, and sometimes they are never discovered.

Med mal payouts make up only a tiny fraction of healthcare costs

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Monday, May 6, 2013.

Ohio is one of many states to have adopted "tort reform" measures in recent years. In most cases, states have passed laws putting caps on the amount of money a plaintiff can collect in damages. Some states have gone so far as to amend their state constitutions to make it much harder to sue for personal injury, medical malpractice or other harms.

When pushing for medical malpractice "reform," advocates seeking damage caps and other measures alleged that "frivolous" lawsuits were driving up healthcare costs and making it more expensive for everyone to get healthcare. These jackpot payments were bankrupting the system, they cried. As research has shown, they were very wrong.

Patient ID photos may help to reduce error rates

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Friday, May 3, 2013.

Drivers’ licenses serve many purposes. In addition to proving that one has been deemed fit by the state to operate a vehicle, they serve to identify adult Americans who have been involved in accidents, who wish to purchase certain substances and who want to travel by airplane. Identification measures help to ensure that Americans in a variety of situations remain safe and behave legally.

A recently published study indicates that greater emphasis on photographic identification measures may also help to reduce rates of medical malpractice. Researchers of this particular study focused on the high rate of imaging identification errors that currently plagues the U.S. healthcare system.

 

Many hospitals fail to properly combat hospital infections

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Monday, April 29, 2013.

Whenever we go into a hospital in order to treat an injury or disease, we reasonably expect to leave the hospital in better health than when we arrived. Unfortunately, countless patients in Ohio and around the country suffer complications, injuries and even death from illness and infections acquired in the hospital.

Hospital-acquired infections can be caused by post-operative neglect, unsanitary hospital conditions or many other kinds of medical negligence. It is estimated that one in 20 patients suffers a hospital-acquired infection. Unfortunately, the efforts to sterilize hospitals through the use of antibacterial and anti-microbial products has caused some germs to morph into treatment-resistant "superbugs."

Study: The most deadly medical malpractice errors are diagnostic

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Friday, April 26, 2013.

Certain medical errors make banner headlines from time to time. When physicians cut off a healthy limb from a patient or cause a catastrophic birth injury, Americans tend to take notice. However, the daily diagnostic errors that physicians make are ultimately more costly and occur more frequently than those that tend to make the news.

For example, when patients suffer as a result of a physician's failure to diagnose strokes and heart attacks, the long-term complications suffered can cost patients both financially and physically. A recent study conducted by esteemed researchers based at Johns Hopkins Medical Center have confirmed that these kinds of delayed diagnosis errors and misdiagnosis errors cause patients the most serious harm of all potential medical errors. In addition, diagnostic errors are the most frequent kinds of medical malpractice claims as a result of this long-term harm.

Study finds rural hospitals have higher death rates than others

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Tuesday, April 23, 2013.

Those of us who live in Cleveland and other large cities in Ohio enjoy access to more perks and amenities than those who live in more rural areas. We have easy access to shopping, fine dining and entertainment. But most importantly, we have access to some of the finest hospitals in the country.

While this is true in Cleveland, some Ohio residents are not so lucky. According to a recent study, "critical access hospitals" (which are in mostly rural areas and are heavily subsidized by the government) have patient death rates higher than hospitals in more urban and populated areas.

When medical professionals make mistakes, hospitals prosper

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Medical Malpractice on Sunday, April 21, 2013.

This will sound counterintuitive, so bare with us on this one: according to a new report published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, hospitals stand to make more money when they make a medical error or mistake.

Let that sink in for a moment -- hospitals actually profit from botching procedures, erroneously suggesting treatment programs and messing up operations.

Computer systems can reduce medication errors

On behalf of Novak & Pavlik L.L.P. posted in Prescription Errors on Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Prescription drug errors are a big problem in medical facilities in Ohio and throughout the United States. According to information from the Institute of Medicine, American hospitals experience an average of one medication error per patient per day. While some of these errors amount to nothing more than a mere inconvenience, many end up causing serious harm -- or even death -- to the improperly treated patients.

Hospitals have been working hard to combat this trend. Many have implemented electronic drug monitoring and prescribing systems in an effort to prevent errors. According to a recent study, it looks like these systems may be working.