Posts tagged as:

malpractice

Op-ed: Injured patients deserve medical malpractice reform

November 7, 2009

A version of this op-ed was published on October 26th, 2009 in the USA Today.
President Obama has acknowledged that changes in the medical malpractice system must be considered with other health reforms, and recently ordered that pilot projects to improve the way we compensate injured patients be implemented.
Reforming medical liability has historically been a source [...]

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Does the tort-based medical malpractice system improve patient care?

November 2, 2009

by Michael Kirsch, MD
Physicians and plaintiff attorneys have philosophically divergent views on our tort system. I know the attorneys’ views on this issue well. There are lawyers in my family who have prosecuted physicians for alleged medical malpractice. Sometimes, there hasn’t been enough antacids in our house to douse my flaming heartburn after some of [...]

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My USA Today column on why medical malpractice reform is needed

October 26, 2009

My latest USA Today column was published this morning: Any malpractice reforms should put patients first.
I discuss how the our medical malpractice system poorly compensates injured patients and is ineffective at improving medical practice. These are the most important reasons why malpractice reform is needed. And capping awards is not the answer:
Researchers [...]

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Is emergency department boarding associated with undesirable events?

October 18, 2009

Originally published in Journal Watch Emergency Medicine
by Richard D. Zane, MD, FAAEM
Nearly 30% of ED boarders at a single tertiary care hospital experienced undesirable events.

Emergency department boarding — inpatients in the ED awaiting a hospital bed assignment — is common across the U.S. Although boarding is inconvenient and demoralizing for both patients and providers, [...]

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Unnecessary hospital admissions cost money and can harm patients

October 16, 2009

When the elderly go to the emergency room, more often than not, they are admitted to the hospital.
Stuart Turkewitz, a geriatrician posting at his platintiff attorney brother’s malpractice law blog, explains why. Often times, it’s because emergency doctors aren’t familiar with the baseline state of his elderly patients. Subsequently, “the urge to recommend [...]

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Two nurses face jail time for reporting a doctor to the Texas Medical Board

October 15, 2009

There’s a disturbing case in Texas, involving two whistle-blowing nurses who reported a physician to the Texas Medical Board (TMB).
Apparently, they took offense at the physician who was peddling herbal medications in the emergency room, among other deeds. Unable to convince hospital administration to discipline him, they reported him to the Board.
And here’s where [...]

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Does the Max Baucus health reform plan do enough for doctors?

October 10, 2009

by Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD

Max Baucus’ decision to release his solo album—subtitled the Senate Finance Committee’s proposal on health reform—was timed with the precision of a 4th grade marching band.
Physicians could live with that, but the bill contained gornisht on tort reform and not much more than that on Medicare reimbursement. Upon seeing that, the [...]

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Do electronic medical records increase physician communication of critical test results to patients?

October 2, 2009

Originally posted in Insidermedicine
Advanced electronic systems that alert physicians when outpatients receive critical abnormal test results do not appear to reduce the rate at which these results are overlooked, according to research published in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Here are some ways you can ensure that abnormal results of medical [...]

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A formula to help Congress with health care costs

September 30, 2009

by Gary R. Gibson, MD, FACP
In his 2007 book Critical, Tom Daschle said lawmakers were “flummoxed” when attempting to craft specific reform legislation. They seem flummoxed again as they fail to recognize the primacy of the patient-physician covenant and try to analyze a complex problem without a suitable conceptual model.
The formula below [...]

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How much unnecessary testing goes on in the ER?

September 30, 2009

Plenty, if you ask the people most familiar with the situation, the emergency physicians themselves.
According to a survey from Emergency Physicians Monthly , many tests performed in the ER are deemed unnecessary to good patient care. Here’s how doctors responded to the following question: “Given that in a typical shift of eight hours you [...]

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Reasons why doctors practice defensive medicine

September 28, 2009

Here’s a simple chart that sums it all up. Apologies for the small type.

As The Happy Hospitalist writes, “Some doctors and patients may be willing to experience some anxiety for the unknown. But most won’t, especially since neither party is directly paying for the testing. This selfish interest is rooted in moral hazard, at [...]

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Does the bulk of excessive medical care happen in the ER?

September 25, 2009

by Michael Kirsch, MD
The concept of medical excess is very difficult for ordinary patients to grasp. The medical community has worked hard for decades teaching them that more medicine meant better medical care. The public has learned these lessons well. Physicians who sent their patients for various diagnostic tests or specialty consultations were regarded as [...]

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How to reduce the risk of medical errors from patient hand-offs

September 25, 2009

One of the consequences of capping resident work-hours is increasing the frequency of patient hand-offs.
In a recent column in The New York Times, surgeon Pauline Chen cites a somewhat frightening statistic that during a course of a typical 5-day hospitalization, patients “are passed between doctors an average of 15 times.”
And residents sign over patients several [...]

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Why Howard Dean is wrong on medical malpractice reform

September 23, 2009

by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD
I am on record saying that some elements of tort reform will be passed by Congress.
The most likely reform will be safe harbor immunity for following physician-developed practice guidelines. We believe this is a start.
A more robust approach would include qualified immunity for those who consciously deviate from such guidelines because [...]

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Medical malpractice reform by President Obama and the White House

September 19, 2009

by Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
The White House today announced details of a $25 million grant program to test alternatives to the tort system for medical liability cases.
In his Sept. 9 speech before Congress, the president announced he would direct Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services secretary, to launch pilot programs meant [...]

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