Despite strong lobbying from the insurance industry, both the Senate and House versions of the health reform bills do not include damage caps for medical malpractice actions, or other severe forms of medical liability reform.  Instead, medical malpractice litigation is left to the individual states’ civil justice system, and the right for a jury to determine what is fair compensation on a case-by-case basis in medical malpractice lawsuits.

The Senate’s bill does provide money towards “state demonstration programs” aimed at evaluating  alternatives to the current system of medical tort litigation.  Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers continue to place our faith in a jury of one’s peers to determine what is fair and reasonable compensation for victims of medical negligence.

Under the Senate’s bill, states wishing to set up such demonstration programs must meet specific criteria to receive funding, including:
•    Encouraging disclosure of health care errors
•    Encouraging collection and analysis of patient safety data related to health care disputes
•    Increasing availability of “prompt and fair resolution” of disputes
•    Allowing patients to “opt out or voluntarily withdraw” from the alternative program at any time

It remains to be seen  what, if any, medical liability reform measures will be included in the final bill sent to President Obama for his signature, including the nature of the “state demonstration program” effort. The hope of medical injury attorneys and their client victims is that any significant tort reform measures will remain absent, or will be more focused at addressing careless and reckless behavior of health care professionals, rather than limiting patient rights.

Medical errors can cause serious, permanent injury or death. Just because an injury occurred as a result of a medical procedure, however, does not mean that medical negligence occurred.  Specific criteria must be met in order for a medical malpractice case to be brought.  An experienced medical malpractice attorney can help you determine whether malpractice occurred and, if so, ensure you are compensated to the full extent permissible under the law.

For a Free Consultation with one of our top injury attorneys, call Passen Law Group today at (312) 527-4500.

Ten years later, although we have seen marginal improvement in terms of awareness and in certain areas of patient safety, people continue to suffer catastrophic injury or death caused by preventable medical errors at alarming rates.  Indeed, according to a new investigative report called “Dead By Mistake”, released by the Hearst Corporation, an estimated 200,000 people will die in 2009 due to preventable medical errors and hospital infections.  Passen Law Group’s medical negligence lawyers are committed representing the rights of those individuals and families who fall victim to acts of preventable medical errors.

The 2000 IOM report recommended a series of systematic corrections to “make it harder for people to do something wrong and easier for them to do it right.” And although strides have certainly been made, reports such as “Dead By Mistake” and a previous post on Intensive Care Unit deaths due to hospital infections show how systemic corrections have not gone far enough, and medical professionals still must be held accountable for their actions in the interest of patient safety.

Dr. Robert M Wachter, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a national leader on patient safety, in a recent New York Times interview advocated for doctor accountability.  To illustrate the point, Dr. Wachter points to a problem that has been discussed on this blog and in other studies: hand washing. It is well documented that not washing hands before or after a procedure can lead to infection, which can in turn lead to death. Dr. Wachter points out a flaw in patient safety enforcement: a doctor can lose his or her hospital privileges by violating regulations, such as not signing a dictated discharge summary or operative note, but no such penalty exists for failure to wash his or her hands.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that openly disclosing and apologizing to patients and family when mistakes happen can lead to an increase in patient safety as well as satisfaction, and may obviate the need to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Both the University of Illinois hospitals and the University of Michigan hospitals have seen a significant decrease in number of medical malpractice cases filed against them after initiating such a practice. At Michigan, from August 2001 to August 2007, cases fell from 262 to 83. At the University of Illinois, only six settlements were more than the hospital’s medical and related expenses.  However, patients should still contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney before agreeing to settle with a doctor or hospital — it’s not uncommon for hospitals (and their lawyers) to try to take advantage of patients and their families with the offer of an apology and a “quick settlement” to absolve themselves of future liability.

For a Free Consultation with a top-rated Chicago medical malpractice lawyer, call Passen Law Group at (312) 527-4500.

In the case, Smith v. Pavlovich, M.D., et al.,  No. 5-08-0256 (Ill. App. Ct. 5th Dist., Sep. 10, 2009), a three-year-old girl died at the age of 3 from what was diagnosed as meningitis.  Her mother filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two doctors and a registered nurse, alleging that the defendants negligently failed to recommend and administer Prevnar, a vaccine which may have prevented the bacterial meningitis from causing her daughter’s death.

Prior to the girl’s death, she was a patient at the Carbondale Clinic on six separate occasions and on each occasion, she was only seen by the defendant nurse.  She never saw either of the defendant doctors.  At trial, the court rejected the attempt of the plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorney to have its expert witness, a doctor, testify as to the standard of care applicable to registered nurses.  The appellate court affirmed.

The court noted the well-established rule that to testify as an expert on the standard of care for a given school of medicine, the expert “must be licensed therein.”  In other words, a practitioner of one school of medicine (i.e. a doctor)  is not qualified to testify as an expert in a medical malpractice action against a practitioner of another school of medicine (i.e. a nurse).  Citing Sullivan v. Edward Hospital, 209 Ill. 2d 100 (Ill. 2004).

The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the nurse was acting as a pediatrician with respect to the decadent and that therefore a physician specializing in pediatrics was qualified to testify about the standard of care applicable to the nurse.  Furthermore, the appellate court affirmed the dismissals of the defendant doctors because neither doctor ever examined, treated or even saw the decedent as a patient.

This case stresses the importance of choosing experts wisely in medical malpractice actions, and making sure you have an expert qualified to testify concerning the standard of care applicable to each defendant.  Had the plaintiff’s medical malpractice lawyer retained a registered nurse to testify as an expert witness concerning the defendant nurse’s deviation from the standard of care, a jury would have been able to decide whether the nurse’s malpractice caused the plaintiff’s daughter’s death.

For a free consultation with one of our top Chicago medical malpractice lawyers, call Passen Law Group at (312) 527-4500.