Medical Malpractice

• Doctors Billing For Medical Malpractice

  Brooks Schuelke | March 02, 2008 1:31 PM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• Texas Medical Malpractice Caps Challenged

  Brooks Schuelke | February 29, 2008 2:31 PM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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.

• Are Texas's Medical Malpractice Caps Constitutional?

  Brooks Schuelke | February 14, 2008 12:39 PM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• Arbitration in the Medical Malpractice Context

  Brooks Schuelke | February 13, 2008 9:43 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• Nursing Home Agreements May Violate the Law

  Brooks Schuelke | February 05, 2008 8:03 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• John Ritter -- A Medical Malpractice Case Still Worth Taking

  Brooks Schuelke | February 04, 2008 9:48 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• Nursing Home Woes

  Brooks Schuelke | January 23, 2008 5:23 PM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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. ...

• Texas Gets a "C" For Emergency Medical Care

  Brooks Schuelke | January 18, 2008 9:03 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...

• Delays Increase in Emergency Room Care

  Brooks Schuelke | January 16, 2008 9:01 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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,...

• Physician-Owned Hospitals Providing Faulty Medical Care

  Brooks Schuelke | January 11, 2008 9:43 AM | 0 CommentsAustin, TX

  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...