Posted on January 30, 2009 by Scott Grossman

Reducing Medical Errors May Require A Simple Solution

As a Bergen and Monmouth County medical malpractice lawyer, I am aware of  per se negligence or what is referred to in the legal community as res ipsa loquitur type of negligence by doctors or other staff in hospitals. So, it comes as a relief to know that many of these types of obvious errors are not only preventable, but also easily preventable.

According to this news report that relies on a study on the effects of using checklists to go though pre and post surgery routines, post surgery death rates in hospitals can be dramatically reduced if surgeons and other staff in the surgical theater actually use a simple checklist as a guideline of sorts. The checklist, that's been designed by the World Health Organization includes 19 points, including such sweet and simple gems like

  • Mark the area or body part to be operated with a pen.
  • Make sure that you have the right patient on the table. Ask his name.
  • After the surgery, make sure that you haven’t left needles, sponges or other calling cards behind in the patient's body.

Hardly rocket scientist stuff, but according to the study that was conducted across a total of eight international cities, the effects of using a checklist like this reduces post surgery hospital deaths by close to 50 per cent. Post surgery complications dropped by nearly one third.

The results of the study have been encouraging enough for a number of countries, including Britain, to include these steps in a checklist that they will make mandatory in their hospitals. To be fair, American facilities already do use some of these steps as part of their own surgery checklist, and the Joint Commission, a body that's responsible for accrediting hospitals has said that it will consider including more of the steps on the checklist in American operating rooms.

People use checklists to ensure that a job goes smoothly all the time - from a mother who makes a list of all things to pack before a long family trip, to the pilot who ticks off from a list before he prepares for take off, people make use of checklists to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as planned. So it makes sense that patients would be safer when doctors operate with a checklist.

This study only corroborates what those of us who work in the medical malpractice field have known all along – that many post surgery complications, medical injuries and deaths in fact can be reduced.    

 

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Posted on December 15, 2008 by Scott Grossman

Survey Shows Hospitals are Not Sharing Medical Error Information

Hospitals in New Jersey are required under the Patient Safety Act of 2004 to report any mistakes to the state Department of Health and Senior Services, but a nationwide survey suggests that most hospitals in the country, which do collect such information, do not use it to reduce the incidences of medical malpractice in their facilities.

The survey, contained in a report by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, says that an overwhelming majority of hospitals nationwide have begun the practice of collecting information of serious medical mistakes that occur in their facilities. However, the statistics of the number of hospitals where this information is actually shared by key personnel, including managers, is a dismal one in five hospitals. What this means is that most of this useful information, which could actually reduce the incidence of medical errors, and decrease the number of medical malpractice lawsuits, goes to waste, since very little of it is acted upon.

The report voices the concern that such protection of error data could stop hospitals from creating a conducive and open work environment, where staff members would actually be encouraged to share information on mistakes, so that these can be acted on, and patient safety in the future enhanced. Keeping such important information off the radar only helps perpetuate these very same mistakes over and over again, defeating the actual purpose of collecting the information, which is to increase patient safety in a hospital setting. 

In New Jersey, where state law requires medical errors to be reported to the DHSS, the state currently does not provide the names of hospitals and doctors who are responsible for the mistake. State officials say that this is done to encourage hospital staff participation in reporting errors, and it does seem to reflect in the statistics of facilities reporting errors, which have jumped by about 20 percent over the past couple of years. Clearly, the ability to remain anonymous is encouraging hospitals to report mistakes. However, that may change in some measure with a new law that Governor Jon Corzine signed last year , which requires hospitals to post details of hospital-acquired infections on their websites. Patients will soon be able to compare hospitals based on their in-patient safety records, and make a decision on the facility they want to use.

Greater Transparency is Necessary to Reduce Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

For long, medical malpractice lawyers have been blamed for everything, from the defensive treatment methods pursued by doctors, to the liability insurance premiums that they pay. The path to avoiding a medical practice lawsuit is actually quite simple – increase transparency in the manner in which hospitals choose to note and rectify their errors, and make sure that these mistakes don’t occur again. That's all that's really needed to make sure that patients' rights are protected. When medical error data is hidden and filed away to gather dust, we can continue to expect more mistakes to be made, and more medical malpractice lawsuits showing up.

Building a Malpractice Lawsuit 

Pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit against a well funded and large hospital can require extensive resources. It's important that you hire an experienced medical malpractice attorney to build you a wining case. Contact a medical malpractice lawyer at the Law offices of Scott Grossman LLC.

 

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