Report Finds Most Errors at Hospitals Go Unreported
If you read the previous article about the American Medical Association pushing congress to limit the damages that a patient may recover in a lawsuit then the following article, "Union outraged at Lifespan's million-dollar executive pay" explains the reason behind their push. It's really quite simple, since they are paying millions of dollars to the executives in charge of the hospital, obviously they are hoping that they can collect this amount of money by cutting down on the expense of proper care and treatment of patients and then escaping responsibility in return for which they'll have larger profits to pay for their multi-million dollar salaries.
The following article, again, demonstrates the very sad situation in our country where the American Medical Association and other physician's organizations have asked congress to impose limits on malpractice lawsuits. It has been very disheartening for me as a medical malpractice lawyer to witness the continuous assault by the AMA and physician groups to attack their own patients by seeking to reduce or limit their right to their day in Court which is granted to every other person who seeks justice in the Courthouse. In all of my years in practice I have never encountered any hospital or physician who has admitted their mistakes and stepped up to the plate to facilitate a reasonable settlement of a patient's claim. The attached article, "Not Their Job" is another in a long, long list of attacks around the country against health care patients who place their trust in their caregivers.
Here’s another article on the ongoing saga of the out-of-control proliferation of “supposedly safe supplements” on the market place.
Holy cow, they ain't God after all! Read More: Decoding the God Complex (The New York Times; September 27, 2011)
Not only they ain't God but some of them don't care about us...
Read More: Doctors Who Giver Good Care, and Are Caring (The New York Times; September 26, 2011)
Read more: Here’s to Your Health, So They Claim (The New York Times; Sunday August 28, 2011)
The following is another article about the rampant greed that continues to riddle the medical profession inclusion with their cohorts, the gigantic pharmaceutical companies. This problem has been going on for many years and this particular situation was uncovered in Massachusetts, not by the various medical organizations, but by a newspaper and an online organization. It’s especially interesting that some of the physicians involved in this scandal are affiliated with the Harvard Medical School.
Read more: Doctors and drug companies (The Providence Journal)
The title of this article is somewhat misleading since there are way too many hospitals that do not have a good record of following hospital protocol especially the so-called leading hospitals in this country. In my opinion, protocols are not followed in hospitals that have a strong culture of various “cliques” that are headed by arrogant personnel who “know how to do everything and don’t need to follow protocol.
Read more: Report Finds Improved Performance by Hospitals (The New York Times; Thursday, September 15, 2011)
Hooray! Maybe this will work! Doctors need to know about their horrible bedside manner; however, I'm thinking that good bedside manner is not something that an arrogant nerd can learn, I think you have to be a kind and compassionate person to begin with and therein lies the rub! Medical schools continue to accept students who disguise themselves as earthlings but in reality are from a distant planet scheming to undermine the health of our planet. Read more in the New York Times: "A $42 Million Gift Aims at Improving Bedside Manner"
Here again is another example of the corruption of our healthcare system in America. This is a major problem because the result of these phony studies is that drugs are flooding the market that is causing the deaths and serious illnesses of many patients here in America. Along with this problem is the growing number of errors in the dispensing of medications by pharmacies which is also leading to an enormous number of deaths and injuries to patients purchasing their prescriptions through the pharmacies.
Our government agencies are not capable and, in some times, not willing to properly supervise and regulate these problems. Rather, there is an ongoing attempt through the legislative bodies in our government to seriously cripple and undo the work of the trial lawyer. Trial lawyers are the only safeguard the public has in terms of holding these wrong doers accountable for injuries they cause to patients.
It’s really quite simple to understand that a crippling of the trial lawyers and the tort system will lead to a huge increase in profits for the wrong-doers. Read this article from the NY Times Useless Studies, Real Harm
I am attaching an article concerning the "The Phantom Menace of Sleep-Deprived Doctors." Sleep deprivation of residents is a long standing tradition in the training of residents and has been responsible in numerous cases as the direct cause of medical errors that have cost the lives of their patients as well as serious injuries. The new rules effecting the abolishment of 30-hour overnight shifts have been widely publicized; but the fact is that many residents still work overnight shifts. We recently litigated a case involving a first year resident who was involved in a gall bladder removal procedure where he was assisting the surgeon at 2:00AM in the operating room after having been on duty for more than 22 hours. The resident?s participation in the operative procedure was the probable cause of the puncture wounds in the duodenum which caused substantial and permanent damage to the patient.
The attached article also points to the underlying culprit in many hospital errors and that is the "lack of teamwork" "culture" of the hospitals and the medical profession, generally, which I have discussed before on this forum. The lack of teamwork within the hospital involves the absence of comprehensive and detailed communication regarding a patient?s condition and is one of the leading causes of malpractice errors in hospitals. With reference to surgical errors, it can be attributed in many cases to the arrogance of the surgeon, who "knows how to do the procedure and does not accept suggestions or input from the supporting staff." And consequently we have situations where fundamental errors, like wrong-sided surgery, occur over and over.
I have discussed this issue previously and have noted that some medical schools are now interviewing incoming students with a view towards determining whether or not they are "team players." I know from my personal experience, that any collaborative endeavor whether it be working in a hospital or a member of a sporting team, requires and rewards teamwork as a winning and successful formula. On the other hand, lack of teamwork and the presence of a "primadonna" seriously effects and undermines the performance of any collaborative endeavor and is the cause of miscommunication, lack of a cohesive effort and contributes to poor results and errors.
I have previously written to the Dean of Admissions of the Brown University School of Medicine and have offered to appear at a seminar before the medical students to discuss my experience as a medical malpractice attorney with a focus on the cause and type of errors that persist in the treatment and care of patients. I have also volunteered to speak to the subject of better communication as a solution to the number of unnecessary errors that lead to medical malpractice. To date, I have not received a reply to my letter.
I hope this article is of interest to you.
Well, look at this! Once again, a small number of the medical establishment has broken through their tunnel vision and has entered the realm of common sense! Guess what? They now made a miraculous discovery which is that "chronic pain is now considered a disease" and that this pain needs to be treated as a disease. The importance of this discovery is that patients who require pain medication for years and years should not be suddenly, and without warning, cutoff from their pain meds by their own treating doctor, usually the primary care doctor. The doctors are under pressure and auditing system that subjects them to discipline for prescribing "too many pain meds." The patients who are suddenly and abruptly cut off from their pain meds fall into the hell hole of withdrawal which can, and sometimes, results in death. This is one of the largest problems in the medical care system that is not being addressed adequately. The following article will hopefully improve the awareness of this problem and perhaps motivate the patients to be more assertive regarding their need for pain medication.
Please read the following article from New York Times: "WELL; Giving Chronic Pain a Medical Platform of Its Own".
It's about time! Finally, a few of the medical schools have awakened and have realized that the students they have accepted for the medical school program have been the "wrong kind". Medical schools have historically accepted applicants based on their grades and test scores. Most of us have had experience with the so-called "brains" in our school who were very good at getting high test scores but did not mix in with the general student body. There is a general perception in society that these students were "book smart" but had little common sense.
Apparently, this general perception seems to hold true for much of the medical field; especially when relating to social skills with their patients. This has also led to a culture within the medical profession that actually encourages and breeds arrogance which, of course, is not a great attribute in terms of socializing.
Medical malpractice has occurred, to a large extent, because many doctors are not "team players". Their inability to communicate easily with the hospital staff has led to a large percentage of the errors that occur, both in hospital settings and in the office. A cast system is the culture that is very much in place in medicine today; where nurses are subjugated to subservient roles with rude and hostile treatment flowing from physicians to nurses. The arrogant physician knows all and does not accept input or suggestions from anyone and so errors continue to be made due in large part to the fair of colleagues and support staff incurring the wrath of "God".
Based on my experience in investigating the cause of errors in medical malpractice cases, I have formed the opinion that many of the medical students who are accepted and become physicians, are being grossly misplaced as caregivers.
Patients today deserve the best care available; best care is given by a physician who is plugged into the support staff and is able to utilize their skill and knowledge in both assessing and caring for the patient. This, in fact, does require a complete team effort and unless and until the culture in the medical profession changes, there will be many more medical errors that will ruin thousand of patients' lives and their families each year.
More than high test scores, we need people comprised of compassion and what we call humanity, who are intelligent problem solvers, who understand how to work as a team in order to gain the greatest success in the care and treatment of patients.
Team play is what separates great success with mediocrity. The cultures that exist in the medical profession that undermine and prevent team play should be abolished for the sake of the integrity of the medical profession and the quality of care to the patient.
Please read the following article from New York Times: "New for Aspiring Doctors, the People Skills Test".
Another Breakthrough! Please read the following article from New York Times: "Rethinking Addiction's Roots, and Its Treatment".
