How Medical Malpractice Laws are Saving Our Healthcare System
The New York Times carried this story that points to how, for so many patients in New York and across the country, medical malpractice laws may be the only thing standing between them and healthcare anarchy. The story focuses on the City's hospitals, in particular University Hospital in Syracuse, but the implications are just as relevant for any hospital in New Jersey.
The report uses the case of a 56-year-old woman, Sharon Yacketta who has had to undergo 19 surgeries in the past 4 years – one to correct her original problem of urinary incontinence, and the remaining 18 to correct the horrific errors that resulted from that first surgery. Since that first botched operation when surgeons at University Hospital managed to rupture her right ureter, Yacketta has battled infections, and watched helplessly as her urinary incontinence ballooned into a vastly more complicated condition.
The negligence at University Hospital is just a symptom of the malaise that affects so many of hospitals, including those we have in New Jersey. It has its roots in the fact that we have no single federal agency to oversee our hospitals. That, and the sad truth that many times hospitals are large employers in the community they are located in, and any attempts to close them down face stiff resistance from locals, makes it harder for hospitals like University to be shut down. Around the country, it’s the same story. Hospitals are rarely held accountable for the errors they make, with anything resembling serious action. A facility that continues to make disastrous mistakes like University Hospital can continue to stay in business because the system is dysfunctional enough to prevent even bad hospitals from going under. No prizes for guessing who suffers when our nation's health facilities continue to provide sub par care – patients who in many cases, simply have no other choice.
In New Jersey, we have seen the number of preventable hospital errors increase steadily over the past three years. Like University Hospital which has faced more than a few medical malpractice lawsuits in the past , we have our own facilities in New Jersey where patients are more likely to return in worse condition than they were in when they arrived. So, the next time people whine about medical malpractice lawyers and malpractice insurance contributing to the skyrocketing healthcare costs in this country, it might be appropriate to point them towards this report.
