How Many Die From Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals?
by Marshall Allen
ProPublica
Sep. 19, 2013
...In 2010, the Office of Inspector General for Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare alone in a given year. Now comes a study in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher — between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death, the study says.
That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.
The new estimates were developed by John T. James, a toxicologist at NASA’s space center in Houston who runs an advocacy organization called Patient Safety America. James has also written a book about the death of his 19-year-old son after what James maintains was negligent hospital care...
Showing posts with label medical errors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical errors. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Parents assail malpractice caps after daughter's death at UCLA hospital
Parents assail malpractice caps after daughter's death at UCLA hospital
Center for Justice and Democracy
Los Angeles Times
JANUARY 22, 2011
Two years ago last week, Olivia Cull, 17, was taken off life support. The standout student — who planned to study classics at Smith College — had slipped into a coma during a routine, outpatient procedure at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA in Westwood.
The story of her death was presented to Congress a few days ago, among cases cited by patient advocates pushing to lift the caps on damages for medical malpractice lawsuits.
As lawmakers search for ways to trim healthcare costs, debate continues over the country's medical malpractice laws. Physician groups say caps limit frivolous lawsuits that can drive good doctors out of business. But patients and their families argue that limits on payouts diminish accountability, making it hard to find lawyers to take cases and force full disclosure from doctors.
... "It's confusing," Joy Cull said. "I could imagine this happening over and over again because families don't have the resources to find out how their loved one passed away. We had to claw our way through the system."
To get more information, the Culls decided to sue the hospital. But like others, they had trouble finding a lawyer willing to take the case. Given the state cap on damages, they said, many lawyers did not consider their case worth pursuing.
Although doctors groups complain of frivolous malpractice lawsuits, the number of malpractice claims has actually decreased in recent years as families have had difficulty pursuing claims, Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice & Democracy, a New York-based advocacy group, told Congress at a hearing Thursday, the second anniversary of Olivia's death...
Center for Justice and Democracy
Los Angeles Times
JANUARY 22, 2011
Two years ago last week, Olivia Cull, 17, was taken off life support. The standout student — who planned to study classics at Smith College — had slipped into a coma during a routine, outpatient procedure at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA in Westwood.
The story of her death was presented to Congress a few days ago, among cases cited by patient advocates pushing to lift the caps on damages for medical malpractice lawsuits.
As lawmakers search for ways to trim healthcare costs, debate continues over the country's medical malpractice laws. Physician groups say caps limit frivolous lawsuits that can drive good doctors out of business. But patients and their families argue that limits on payouts diminish accountability, making it hard to find lawyers to take cases and force full disclosure from doctors.
... "It's confusing," Joy Cull said. "I could imagine this happening over and over again because families don't have the resources to find out how their loved one passed away. We had to claw our way through the system."
To get more information, the Culls decided to sue the hospital. But like others, they had trouble finding a lawyer willing to take the case. Given the state cap on damages, they said, many lawyers did not consider their case worth pursuing.
Although doctors groups complain of frivolous malpractice lawsuits, the number of malpractice claims has actually decreased in recent years as families have had difficulty pursuing claims, Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice & Democracy, a New York-based advocacy group, told Congress at a hearing Thursday, the second anniversary of Olivia's death...
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Kaiser Permanente CEO Robert Pearl Talks About Medical Errors--and inadvertently admits he deceived the court
Kaiser has had serious problems with medical errors, but prefers to point the finger at others.
There are some serious problems with Dr. Pearl's story (below) about his father's death. As proven by The Kaiser Papers, Dr. Pearl's father died in Florida, apparently a considerable time AFTER Dr. Pearl says he found his father on the living room floor in California. Why didn't Dr. Pearl investigate the cause of his father's sepsis during that time? Why did he wait until after his father was dead to look into his care?
Another problem is that Dr. Pearl apparently lied in court about the cause of his father's death. He sued the woman who caused a car accident long before his father's death, and forced the woman to pay for Dr. Pearl's pain and suffering at the loss of his father. But Dr. Pearl now admits that the accident was survivable, and the cause of death was actually a medical mistake.
Why didn't Dr. Pearl bother to check on his father's care BEFORE he died?
Dr. Pearl says his father visited him in California after the car accident, at which time his father collapsed from sepsis. The older man apparently recovered enough to return to Florida, but Dr. Pearl didn't bother to make sure his father had received the proper immunizations against infection.
I seems that Dr. Pearl may have invented the story about his father's visit to California. Is this a terrible thing for Dr. Pearl to have done? No, I don't think that it matters much where things happened.
I think it does matter, however, that Dr. Pearl gave one reason in court (in an effort to achieve financial gain) regarding his father's death, and then gave another reason to the media to attract patients to Kaiser Permanente (also to achieve financial gain)!
The place doesn't matter. The reason for, and the time of, the death are extremely important. If doctors killed him, then the much-earlier car accident was survivable. If the old man would have survived except for improper medical care, then the car accident was not the proximate cause of death. But that's NOT what Dr. Pearl said in court.
Kaiser CEO Talks To ABC7 About Medical Errors
December 03, 2005
By Karina Rusk
ABC7 (KGO)
The man at the helm of Kaiser-Permanente speaks to ABC7 about a series of deadly medical mistakes and his personal connection to medical tragedy.
Dr. Robert Pearl is not only the CEO of the Permanente Medical Group, he is a son who lost his father to a medical error.
After an operation on the East Coast, Dr. Pearl's father did not receive a common and necessary vaccine.
Robert Pearl, M.D., Permanente Medical Group CEO: "As a consequence, one day when he was visiting me in California he was found unresponsive on the living room floor early in the morning with pneumococcal septicemia."
Dr. Pearl says that post operative infection took his father's life two years ago. The Institute of Medicine says such medical errors result in as many as 98,000 preventable deaths each year.
Dr. Pearl says that 1999 report is important to him professionally and personally.
Dr. Pearl: "If you use the national numbers, he is but a statistic. As a family member it is a tragedy."
The case of Chris Wibeto is another tragedy. He died in August at Kaiser Santa Teresa in San Jose after receiving the wrong cancer medication.
At Kaiser Santa Clara, three patients died within the last year due to medical error.
Dr. Pearl wants people to keep in mind Kaiser Permanente serves 3.2 million members in Northern California.
Dr. Pearl: "So no, I don't think there is a problem at all. In fact, I really believe Kaiser Permanente is a national leader in patient safety and Kasier Santa Clara is a facility that is exceptional."
Dr. Pearl says he and his own family are treated at Kaiser Santa Clara.
Despite occasional human error, Dr. Pearl maintains Kaiser has aggressive systems in place to prevent deadly mistakes like his fathers.
Dr. Pearl: "Had he been as member of Kasier Permanente, he would be alive today."
To find out why Dr. Pearl says Kaiser is being unfairly singled out and what he's doing to prevent future medical mistakes, watch the entire, unedited interview by clicking on the Video link above.
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