Medical Malpractice | InjuryBoard Austin

One of the benefits of tort "reform", according to its supporters, is that reform is supposed to increase access to care by making more physicians available. But in Ohio, the data is now in. Five years after the state enacted medical malpractice caps, there are fewer doctors delivering babies. Recent data also questions the claim that tort reform was necessary due to rising insurance rates. ...

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In a disturbing new trend, many doctors and other medical groups are requiring patients to enter into arbitration agreements prior to the doctors providing medical care. There are many problems with pre-dispute arbitration agreements, and the biggest in my mind is that the patient is giving up rights without the benefit of counsel. Most people don't know that arbitration can be as expensive...

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"It's bigger than AIDS. It's bigger than breast cancer. It's bigger than auto accidents. And yet no one seems to really be aware of the problem."That's a quote from Dennis Quaid talking about medical errors. Over 100,000 people a year are killed by medical errors, but the public doesn't seem to know about the problem. Though his twins are doing fine after their well publicized experience...

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We had previously posted about the medical malpractice case filed by John Ritter's widow. After a long and grueling trial, the case came to a close last Friday when the jury found that the two remaining doctors had not committed medical malpractice in providing treatment to the actor. Prior to this trial, the hospital and other entities had entered settlements with the family.The case can be...

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There has been a bit of a debate recently about doctors and hospitals billing for services when they commit medical malpractice. Indeed, since last fall, hospitals in 10 states have agreed to waive fees for certain errors called "never events" because experts say they should never happen. But MSNBC has a new story about a medical malpractice charge that may take the cake. As the story...

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Former Dallas Cowboy Ron Springs and 11 other plaintiffs filed suit Monday seeking an order from a judge that Texas's medical malpractice caps violate various provisions of the United States Constitution. The challenge is the first federal constitutional challenge to the statute.We will try and keep you posted as the case progresses.

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Some lobbyist groups would like to believe so, and they've filed a new suit to try and prove it. The case stems from a medical malpractice case in Corpus. There, a Corpus doctor was sued by one of his patients after the patient developed a severe infection after a surgery. In the suit, the patient asserted that the medical malpractice damage caps violated several provisions of the Texas...

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This weekend, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about a disturbing trend of mandatory arbitration agreements showing up in the medical malpractice context. The article states:Within the space of two weeks late last year, Michael and Hedy Cohen, who happen to be experts on medical errors, each encountered what they saw as a disturbing development in the modern doctor-patient relationship. They...

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The February 2, 2008 Kansas City Star reports on a study from the National Senior Citizens Law Center that finds that many nursing home agreements may be violating state and federal law. Eric Carlson, the study's author, said that some of the agreements conflict with the federal Nursing Home Reform Law and state laws. The federal law requires nursing homes to provide care that helps residents...

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Tomorrow, a medical malpractice trial is scheduled to start involving the death of actor John Ritter (the family has previously settled with the hospital involved). In the trial, the Ritter family is seeking an award of $67 million, an amount that the family claims Mr. Ritter would have earned for his continued acting on the show "8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter." The case is a...

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Today, there have been two recent blog posts on appalling cases of problems in nursing homes. First, Ed Normand has posted on a story of a nursing home patient who developed maggots in his eyes. Not to be outdone, Ray Mullman at the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog posts on a nursing home that hired a serial rapist as a nurse. Not surprisingly, the nurse ended up raping one of the residents. ...

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Earlier this week, the American College of Emergency Physicians issued their report card for the state of Texas. Overall, Texas received a "C," but the way we received the grade is interesting. Apparently, Texas is a haven for poor emergency room medical care. We received a "D" in public health and safety, a "D " in access to care, and a "D " in quality/patient safety. Then how did we...

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Yesterday, a group of Harvard doctors released a study that may have a bearing on medical malpractice cases. The study reveals that patients are now waiting longer in emergency rooms. The Wall Street Journal, which covered the study, wrote:The median wait for adults rose to about 30 minutes in 2004 -- meaning half waited more and half waited less -- from 22 minutes in 1997, a 36% increase,...

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Today's Washington Post reports that many of the nation's physician-owned hospitals were performing faulty medical care. The article reports on a Department of Health and Human Services study set to be released today. Among other things, the study found:55% of the 109 physician-owned hospitals reviewed had emergency "departments" - the majority of those had only one bedFewer than 1/3 of the...

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Last week, the West Virginia Supreme Court was faced with the question of whether the state's medical malpractice reforms (including damage caps and requirements of pre-suit expert reports) applied to a claim against a hospital for providing contaminated sutures. The court eventually found that the reforms applied. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Larry Starcher railed on the malpractice...

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