Malpractice Archives - Page 23 of 24 - New Jersey Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Do People File Frivolous Medical Malpractice Suits To Get "Time and Attention" From Their Doctor?

What is the real reason behind the medical malpractice crisis in this country? Could it be medical malpractice victims and “unethical lawyers” who file lawsuits solely for “time and attention” from the physician? Apparently, that”s what some doctors think.

Example number one is this quote from the doctor at Brain Blogger:

Studies have shown that patients who ultimately file a lawsuit are looking for something from the physician. Usually it is time and attention and not money. Unfortunately, money typically is the solution when it gets to that point. Unfortunately, given that the system is set up so that physicians settle out of court, the physician can be penalized by frivolous claims.

Wow-that”s a new one. Let me see if I have this straight. A person who is now unable to work and permanently disabled after a bad doctor makes a careless mistake is only bringing a lawsuit because they want the doctor”s “time and attention?”

Where is the research to support this conclusion? Has he actually talked to patients who have been victims of malpractice? Has he spoken to a young mother is permanently disfigure because a bad doctor misread her mammogram?

Here”s another doctor quote to add to the mix. The doctors over at Physician Entrepreneurs are encouraging all physicians to “band together” against frivolous medical malpractice suits. Here is the main argument from the post:

Doctors who have had enough with frivolous lawsuits have banded together to analyze frivolous lawsuits and take action to discourage unethical lawyers, their paid “experts”, and others from participating in future lawsuits .Medical Justice, launched in 2002 is a membership-based organization designed to complement tort reform and head off frivolous lawsuits.
The service started by a neurosurgeon and attorney has two important components. First, they look at the quality of the so-called expert-witness testimony..

These doctors have started a whole organization to stop “frivolous lawsuits” brought by “unethical lawyers.” Sounds pretty noble right? Not when you stop to look at the facts.

What benefit does a lawyer get for filing a frivolous lawsuit? Number one, there are sanctions and penalties against such actions. Number two (and most importantly), it would make no economic sense whatsoever for a lawyer to file a frivolous medical malpractice lawsuit. Malpractice lawyers work for free – which means that they do not get paid unless they win. Therefore, the cost of experts, research, medical records, etc. is financed personally by the attorney. If they lose or the case is thrown out, the only person that takes a hit is the lawyer. Why then would any business person in their right mind waste resources on a case that has no merit. Here, at MinFirm we screen out and reject about 100 cases for each one we take. Each case is screened by a lawyer, a nurse and a doctor before it ever gets to court.

Like MinFirm, most malpractice attorneys are very selective in the cases that they take. Lawyers may have a reputation for a lot of things, but they are definitely not stupid. And in my opinion, putting out thousands of dollars to bring a frivolous lawsuit is stupid.

It”s even more stupid to suggest that victims of malpractice bring suits for “time and attention” from their doctor. I”m pretty confident that people can find a more constructive way to make friends and get attention than submitting themselves to scrutiny by defense lawyers hired by billion dollar insurance companies.

Sounds to me like these “doctors” are really just the mouth pieces for the insurance industry lobbyist. The majority of good caring doctors believe that patients are entitled to be fairly compensated for injuries by bad doctors. The insurance industry efforts would be better spent “banding together” measures to implement safety procedures and standards to stop incidents of medical malpractice and weeding out doctors that carelessly hurt people.

For further information on medical malpractice lawsuits in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, click on the following link:
Medical Malpractice Lawyer In NJ

How Can I Find Out If My Doctor Has Been Involved in a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?

I stumbled across an interesting website this morning- you can check it out at HealthGrades.com. HealthGrades.com is a basically a watchdog site where you can look up information on any doctor, including whether or not he/she has any malpractice settlements in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia or West Virginia.

In addition to doctor reports, the site also gives patient safety ratings on local hospitals and nursing homes. I actually experimented with the nursing home feature to see what kind of information was returned. Surprisingly, their reports were very comprehensive and provided a lot of useful information for those looking for a quality nursing home facility.

And while the nursing home information that I pulled up was free, the medical malpractice search was not. The site charged a fee of $7.95 for a one-time malpractice settlement search and then an additional $4.95 for a monthly doctor update. For those who remain undeterred by the initial fees, here”s what the national media has to say about the site:

Find the Best Doc – Rating Systems for Doctors

“Aren”t there already Web sites out there that provide these types of ratings? Couldn”t I look you up on the Internet and try to find out more about you, Dr. Gupta?”

“Yes, you could and people have already done that… There is a Web site HealthGrades that you can do that sort of thing. You go on there and type in your doctor”s name to get a report. Some of these reports have a fee where you actually pay for them but some of them are free. You look up the types of procedures the person does and there is patient feedback”
– CNN News, January 8, 2008

Rating Your Doctor

“Word of mouth has always played a big role in medicine. A doctor”s reputation is constantly being shaped by conversations among current and potential patients…

Online services like HealthGrades.com already analyze public and private records on physicians, hospitals and nursing homes, providing a more detached look at how well they perform…”
– TIME Magazine, January 4, 2008

Free Legal Advice: Medical Malpractice

Does PA’s Decline In Medical Malpractice Suits Confirm The Need For Tort Reform?

Short answer- absolutely not. Although supporters of tort reform are rallying behind recent reports that medical malpractice suits in Pennsylvania have declined after the implementation of stricter court requirements to weed out frivolous lawsuits, it seems to me that the actual cases of medical malpractice are still shockingly high.

Apparently the number of malpractice suits filed in Pennsylvania fell to 1,617, which is a 4.5 percent decline from 2006. The reason for this decline, according to Chief Justice Ronald D Castille, are stricter court guidelines which require lawyers to have an independent physician or expert verify the credibility of a case before a suit is filed.

OK- so the frivolous lawsuits have been weeded out. But how can you discredit the 1,617 medical malpractice lawsuits in Pennsylvania that did have merit in the eyes of the court? These are people who have been injured, disfigured and even died as a result of a medical mistake. Most victims do not make a full recovery and are often unable to work or unable to provide for their families.

Lets expand these numbers to include medical malpractice suits on a national level. A recent analysis of Medicare patients between 2004-2006 showed that preventable medical mistakes caused 238,337 wrongful deaths, 1.1 million unnecessary injuries and cost Medicare $8.8 billion dollars. The most common mistakes involved bedsores, accidental punctures or lacerations, anesthesia complications, sepsis, infections and surgical mistakes resulting from instruments and foreign objects left in the body. Furthermore, the same report claims that if the doctors involved followed the same prevention steps and procedures required by top-rated hospitals, 37,214 wrongful deaths from medical malpractice would have been avoided.

So lets compare apples for apples and then decide what”s fair. If we allow tort reform, a doctor who makes a fortune already will save some money on his malpractice insurance. On the other hand, a mother of three who was permanently injured after the doctor made a careless mistake can not recover enough money to support her family and live off of should she be unable to work. Forget the lawyers involved. These are real people with real injuries that could have been prevented. If someone slips on your icy sidewalk and gets hurt, your gonna have a lawsuit on your hand because you made the mistake of not shoveling. That”s life. Why shouldn”t doctors be held to the same standard?

I don”t believe this study confirms the need for tort reform-in fact I believe it shows the exact opposite. If stricter rules were implemented and there were still1,617 people who had viable medical malpractice suits, then the problem lies in the medical field. Its time to stop punishing the victims because the filthy rich hospitals and doctors do not want to pay when mistakes happen. What”s fair is to weed out the bad doctors who hurt people. The medical malpractice lawsuits will then naturally drop off without the help of tort reform or the politics behind it.

"Arrogance, Abuse, Fraud and Medical Malpractice: How Some Physicians Beg for Lawsuits"

I read an interesting article today by MC Kean entitled “Arrogance, Abuse, Fraud and Medical Malpractice: How Some Physicians Beg For Lawsuits.” Kean basically turns the table on doctors who are portraying medical malpractice victims as “sue happy” and exposes the real greed fueling medical malpractice suits which lies within the medical community itself.

Keen states, “Physicians and mass media often depict patients and their lawyers who file lawsuits against doctors as greedy, money-grubbing opportunist. 1 It turns out this is more projection than reality. A 1990 study by Harvard researchers of 31,000 medical records subjected to evaluation by practicing doctors and nurses, “found that doctors were injuring one out of every 25 patients (latter studies put that figure closer to one out of every seven patients), and that only 4 percent of these injured patients sued.” 2 Another Harvard study of 1,452 malpractice lawsuits found that more than 90 percent of the claims evidence supported medical injury and 25 percent of the time the patient died, 60% of these injuries resulted from physician wrongdoing. The study also found when “baseless” malpractice suits were brought they were “efficiently thrown out.” Only 145 of 515 patients suffering injury, but where physician fault was unclear received compensation. On the other hand, 236 cases were thrown out of court despite evidence of injury and physician error.”

Keen then outlines some of the ways in which doctors and hospitals profit from medical malpractice. I have summarized them as follows:

Kickback Driven Medicine- Doctors will prescribe medication and implant medical devices that are either inappropriate for that patient or ineffective for the sake of money. Keen found that “in one study one third of the doctors interviewed, “admitted they would order unnecessary MRI scans and 25% referred patients to an imaging center where they had a financial interest”.”
Promoting Unnecessary Surgeries- Doctors will often fail to disclose alternate or less radical form of treatment, even when they know the alternate treatment is a safer choice.
Bait and Switch- This refers to a doctor switch during surgery. A person will take their time to choose a surgeon based on bedside manner, qualifications, etc., only to find out that a resident or less qualified doctor actually preformed the surgery while they were under anesthesia. The original surgeon then moves on to a higher paying client while the resident who is on salary operates on you with no supervision. Consequently, the surgeon is paid for two major surgeries while only performing one.
Unnecessary Procedures and Exams for the Sake of Training- Unnecessary procedures are not only ordered for patients, but they are prolonged for the sake of training. Multiple students will take turns practicing the same procedure on a sedated patient. Keen states that “informed patients while often willing to accept one or two trainees, are less likely, for example, to consent to their pelvic or anus being penetrated multiple times by multiple people. This gang bang approach to teaching is very abusive”.
Physicians Will Lie- Keen points out that “doctors are often arrogant and indifferent to the very concept of informed consent. Physicians patronizingly claim to know what is best for patients, while they fail to listen or respond to expressed needs, violate patients expressed will, and even do things to patients they would not allow be done to themselves”. He claims that doctors will do as they please and lie about it if it becomes a problem.
Physicians Target the Poor – Because of their lower income level and at times lower IQ, Keen claims “physicians target the poor, mentally disabled, and seriously ill patients who are heavily dependent upon the medical access they receive, as they are less likely to file lawsuits”

Among Keen”s many suggestions to combat some of the issues listed above ( such as being skeptical of any doctor who tries to coerce you into taking medication, undergoing several MRI”s etc.), I think the best suggestion he offers is the following:

“When you find a doctor has abused you; let the rest of us know. Post flyers, post adds, get the word out about that doctor. Start an Abusive Doctor boycott list web site in your area. As we boycott those physicians and seek care with more ethical practitioners incentives may shift a bit.”

It is so important for patients to speak out regarding medical malpractice. Doctors and hospitals have the financial backing to silence the few outspoken critics who attempt to rally congress against malpractice lawsuit caps and tort reform. With enough public outcry and bad PR for those doctors and hospitals that injure patients, change will slowly start to take place.

Admittedly, doctors are human and mistakes will happen even under the strictest regulations and safety procedures. However, it”s the careless errors that we can prevent by drawing attention to these problems. Public outcry will weed out the doctors who continue to abuse patients for the sake of money or those who continue to injure patients because they know they can get away with it.

For further information on medical malpractice or medical malpractice lawsuits, click on the following links:

New Jersey Medical Malpractice Attorneys

The Latest Case of Medical Malpractice– Doctors Remove Man’s Healthy Kidney by Mistake

The latest victim of wrong site surgery is a Minnesota man who underwent surgery to remove his cancerous kidney (read news story) The surgery seemed to go well- the kidney was successfully removed and on its way to the pathology lab. As the pathologists began testing the kidney, they realized it was cancer free. Was this a miracle? Unfortunately not.

The surgeon evidently removed the wrong kidney during surgery. Reports suggest that the kidneys were marked wrong in the patient’s chart and the doctors did not perform any additional diagnostic testing to verify the information was correct before they began.

The hospital has taken responsibility for the error and the surgeon is no longer working with patients at this time. The hospital will now also require diagnostic testing before all surgical procedures to ensure this kind of mistake does not happen again.

But what about the thousands of other hospitals across the US who do not perform diagnostic testing before a surgical procedure? Doctors and hospitals spend countless hours and millions of dollars lobbying congress for medical malpractice lawsuit caps. If they would just put the same amount of effort into patient safety programs and training, medical malpractice cases would naturally decrease. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out.

In the meantime, it is important for patients to stay on top of their own medical health. The operating room is a very chaotic place where a chart or patient mix up can easily happen. Before any surgical procedure, I would highly recommend that you take a big black marker and physically mark the area to be operated on. I would then point this area out to the doctor and make sure the chart reflects the same. If the doctor is not willing to discuss this with you, that should be a clear indication that patient safety is obviously not a priority.

More information on how to prevent surgical errors and wrong site surgery.

Hey Abington Hospital: Stop Blaming Patients For Increase In Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Abington Hospital wants to send medical malpractice victims to mediation to keep them out of court (listen to report on ABC News). Sounds good right? Don’t be fooled. “Sue happy” people aren’t driving the doctors out of town. That’s only what they want you to believe.

Lets face the facts. The Institute of Medicine released a study which states 98,000 people DIE each year from medical errors. That doesn’t even account for the other patients that are permanently disabled or disfigured by the hands of doctors.

To add insult to injury, the medical community has a longstanding tradition of covering up medical mistakes. As a patient, if my doctor screwed up, I want some answers. I want you to be honest and I want you to tell me how your gonna fix it. When you pretend like my suffering isn’t your fault, i’m gonna get mad and i’m gonna call a lawyer.

And to be honest, that’s the consensus among 99% of our clients. However, according to Abington, mediation will solve all of these problems. After all, the doctors will all come back to town, the “sue happy, money hungry” patients get their settlement and we all call it a day. Does anyone else feel like Abington is shifting some blame here on the patient without addressing the real problem that doctors are hurting patients at an alarming rate?

I have a better idea for you Abington Memorial Hospital– why don’t you take some of the money that you are spending on mediators and hire some more doctors? Studies clearly show that medical errors are caused by sleep deprived doctors who work “marathon” shifts of 24 hours or more. Its also common knowledge that going 24 hours with no sleep is equivalent to having a .10 blood alchol level (which either meets or exceds the legal limit in all 50 states).

Quite frankly, I am reminded of that old saying “you made your bed, now lie in it“. If you want to unleash sleep deprived doctors into the operating room, so be it. But at the same time, be prepared to face lawsuits when they make mistakes.

That’s just one of many ways that hospitals can do something constructive to fix this problem. Let’s stop blaming the victims for “our good doctors leaving town“. Step up and take some real responsibility Abington. That’s the only real way to bring the doctors back to town.

Free Legal Advice: Nursing Home Abuse

Patient’s advocate to preventing bedsores

Whenever a patient is in a nursing home, that patient is at risk of developing a bedsore. Although there are both and federal and state guidelines specifically designed to prevent bed sores, many nursing homes and hospitals have failed to follow these guidelines. As a result, nursing home patients are developing bedsores at an alarming rate. This article is designed to help patients and their families prevent bedsores when in a nursing home.

First, some background. What is a bedsore? A bedsore is skin and tissue that has died because it has not received sufficient oxygen from the body. Since blood carries oxygen to all parts of our body, a bedsore is developed when the blood vessels that feed the skin are compressed or damaged in some manner.

The compression or damage prevents the blood from reaching the skin and the skin cells begin to die. If the blood supply continues to be damaged or compromised, more tissue will die. Eventually, the blood supply compromise can infect the underlying tissue, bones and joints. It takes as little as two (2) hours of sustained blood flow compromise to begin this process.

Bedsores are common in the lower back, buttocks and on other boney protrusions that routinely come in contact with a patient’s bed. Although every patient in a nursing home is susceptible to bedsores, the majority of cases are easily preventable. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has published clinical guidelines for bedsore prevention since 1992.
These guidelines can be found at this website

In addition, all nursing homes are required to enact, publish, and follow similar guidelines to prevent bedsores. Despite longstanding published guidelines, why is it then that nursing home patients continue to develop bedsores resulting in hospitalizations, medical complications and, in some instances, death?

Basically, the failure of healthcare facilities to employ enough qualified staff members is the primary reason for the high incidents of bedsores. Typically, licensed practical nurses that work in a nursing home setting are less experienced and cheaper to employ when compared to registered nurses. Furthermore, the resident to nurse ratio is very high. The nurses are simply unable to spend the necessary amount of time with each patient to ensure that the guidelines are being followed. Sadly, understaffing at nursing homes is a serious problem that leads to patient neglect.

For example, many residents are immobile and unable to regularly reposition themselves while lying in bed. The guidelines require nurses and aides to physically move these patients every few hours to prevent bedsores. Unfortunately, by the time an overwhelmed nurse gets around to checking on the resident, the two-hour time frame in which a bedsore can develop has already expired.

Similarly, bedsores are also caused by prolonged exposure of the skin to moisture. It is no wonder then that patients who are left to sit for hours in urine soaked diapers and sheets quickly develop bedsores in places that go unnoticed by the nursing home staff and family members alike. Sadly, the situation spirals out of control and the resident suffers because the staff could not make time to provide them with dry diapers and sheets.

So, what should patients do to prevent these devastating injuries? Fortunately, nursing homes fear the civil tort system where juries can hold them financially accountable for failing to follow the guidelines. Family members should not hesitate to seek legal advice if their loved one develops a bedsore. In addition, family members should go to the web, print up several copies of the guidelines and bring them to the nursing home. Family members should sit down with the nursing home’s medical director to ensure that the guidelines are being followed with respect to their loved one. They should leave a copy of the guidelines prominently displayed on the resident’s bedside table. Finally, family members should follow-up in writing asking the director of medicine and nursing if the guidelines are being followed on an every other-day basis.

The real key is involvement. Family members cannot sit back and blindly trust that their loved ones are in good hands. Most residents are already in poor health when they enter a nursing home facility. Therefore, any neglect can have serious physical consequences. It is only by being a patient advocate in the manner set forth above that family members can ensure that their loved one is receiving the federally and state mandated required bedsore prevention care.

In order to prevent other potential abuses in nursing homes go to our nursing home abuse or our bed sore prevention web pages.

John R. Mininno, Esq. is a New Jersey and Pennsylvania trial lawyer representing clients in medical malpractice, defective products and other serious injury claims. He also writes about issues concerning patient safety. His offices are in Collingswood, NJ and Philadelphia, PA.

23 Facts About Medical Malpractice

Doctors and politicians like to blame attorneys for the high cost of malpractice insurance but the truth is that doctors make severe errors that hurt or kill thousands of patients each year. Here are the facts.

98,000 deaths each year are due to medical errors. – Institute of Health, National Academy of Sciences (1999)
Deaths by medical errors each year exceeded the number of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS. – Institute of Health, National Academy of Sciences (1999)
More than 10% of common surgical procedures are unnecessary or inappropriate. – USA Today(7/24/02)
In the year 2000, the Center for Disease Control found that there were 90,000 deaths due to hospital infections.- Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
In West Virginia, 40 doctors were found to account for 25% of all of the 2,300 cases of malpractice reported to the West Virginia Board of Medical Examiners since 1993. – West Virginia Gazette Mail
Full and prompt disclosure of medical errors to the patient followed with fair compensation for the injury caused has reduced litigation costs in Veterans Hospitals. – United States Department of Veteran Affairs
Medical errors kill more people each year than auto accidents. – Paul C. Weiler, A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice, Litigation and Patient Compensation (1993), Harvard University Press
Medical errors produce more permanent disabilities than do workplace accidents. – Paul C. Weiler, A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice, Litigation and Patient Compensation (1993) – Harvard University Press
In New Jersey if a physician has been sanctioned by the Board of Medical Examiners, consumers can find out nothing about the complaints or disciplinary action. – Asbury Park Press (1/31/02)
Getting a formal hearing with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and its Board of Medical Examiners can take a member of the public up to 2 years. – Asbury Park Press (1/30/02)
Doctors disciplined for gross negligence received on average 3 month suspensions. – Asbury Park Press (1/28/02)
An Asbury Park Press Review of 483 disciplinary records since 1995 showed the Board of Medical Examiners issued reprimands to 3 doctors in 3 cases court. – Asbury Park Press (1/30/02)
20,000 physicians, or 5% are alcoholics, drug addicts, senile, criminals or are incompetent and should not be practicing medicine. New England Journal of Medicine (10/5/87)
Only 1,974 doctors out of 623,000 doctors nationwide were disciplined as a result of their actions. This represents .32% or 3.2 doctors out of 1,000. – Public Citizen Health Research Group Report, September 1993
States do not have the resources available to adequately investigate claims and discipline doctors. 53.6% of the doctors disciplined by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and 44.6% of the doctors disciplined by Medicare were not disciplined by the states in their disciplinary process. – Public Citizen Health Research Group Report, September 1993
In the year 2000 nearly 3/4 of the deadly infections found in hospitals-or about 75,000-were preventable, the result of unsanitary facilities, germ-laden instruments, unwashed hands and other lapses. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
Deaths linked to hospital germs represent the fourth leading cause of death among Americans, behind heart disease, cancer, and strokes. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
Hospital infections kill more people each year than car accidents, fires and drowning combined. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
Strict adherence to clean-hands policies in hospitals cold prevent the deaths of up to 20,000 patients each year. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
Since 1995, more than 75 percent of all hospitals have been cited for significant cleanliness and sanitation violations. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
About 2.1 million patients each year, or 6% will contract a hospital-acquired infection. – Chicago Tribune (7/21/02)
The deaths of 2,610 infants in the year 2000 were linked to preventable hospital-acquired infections. – Chicago Tribune (7/22/02)
Diagnosis of breast cancer was delayed in 9% of patients in a recent study because physicians wrongly ascribed a benign status to a palpable mass. – Archives of Internal Medicine (6/24/02)

If you or a loved one has been harmed by medical malpractice, you may have a claim for damages. For more information, please go to the New Jersey Medical Malpractice Attorneys page.

John R. Mininno, Esq.is a New Jersey and Pennsylvania trial lawyer representing clients in medical malpractice, defective products and other serious injury claims. He also writes about issues concerning patient safety. His offices are in Collingswood, NJ and Philadelphia, PA.

Fentanyl Patches Recall

In the month of February, Fentanyl prescription patches were recalled for the second time because of a product defect that could cause patients to overdose on the potent drug inside.

Actavis South Atlantic, the manufacturer admitted that several lots of the patches sold nationwide might have a defect. The dosages are 25-microgram-per-hour, 50-microgram-per-hour, 75 microgram-per-hour and 100 microgram-per-hour. The patches have expiration dates of May through August 2009. A contract manufacturer, Corium International Inc., manufactured the patches for Actavis.

Similarly, in January of 2008 Johnson & Johnson and Novartis AG’s Sandoz voluntarily recalled a version of Duragesic that also contains Fentanyl. Again, these manufacturers admitted that certain defects might cause leaks that can lead to fatal overdoses. Those recalled patches, manufactured by Alza Corp. on behald of Sandoz Inc. in the U.S have expiration dates on or before December 2009. The defect is an opening that could result in release of the gel made of the drug Fentanyl inside.

Fentanyl is an opioid-based analgesic. High dosages of Fentanyl can lead to severe cardiac and respiratory arrest especially in the elderly and other chronically ill patients. This patient population uses Fentanyl frequently thus increasing the risk of overdoses and death.

Unfortunately, other than the recall, these manufacturers have provided little else in the way of information as to the dangers associated with these patches. Many patients have no way of knowing whether their patch is defective or harmful. More should be done to warn the elderly and other patients before they are harmed.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by an overdose of Fentanyl after using this patch, you may have a claim for damages. For more information, please go to the New Jersey Medical Malpractice Attorneys page.

Avoiding Medical Malpractice

Every day, attorney John Mininno encounters at least one case of medical malpractice that could have been avoided by greater patient involvement. With medical errors at an all-time high, patient advocacy has come to the forefront of national concern. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has even dedicated the first week of March to national patient safety and awareness in hopes of curbing this trend. In response to these growing concerns, Mininno offers five practical tips to avoid becoming the victim of medical malpractice.

1. Actually read the consent form and ask questions: Fighting the temptation to skim the consent form and get on with the show? Think again. “A safe patient is an informed patient,’ says Mininno. Although medical forms can be overwhelming, Mininno encourages patients to get involved in the process. “Find out exactly who will be performing the surgery, what are the risks or possible side effects and if there are any alternative treatments. More importantly, don’t be afraid to ask your doctor how many times he or she has actually performed the surgery that you are about to undergo.’ If you are not satisfied with the answers you receive, Mininno suggests postponing the procedure until you find a doctor who can answers these questions.

2. Do not assume your doctor has a crystal ball: By providing a very clear and detailed medical history, you will avoid becoming the victim of inappropriate medical treatment. “Prior medical conditions can affect your doctor’s choice of treatment. This is especially true in an emergency room setting where you do not have a relationship with the particular doctor treating you,’ says Mininno. This is also true regarding primary care physicians who see hundreds of patients on a daily basis. “Don’t assume your doctor remembers everything about you and your medical history. It’s just not possible.’ To ensure you are prescribed the appropriate medication and given the right treatment, Mininno suggests compiling a list of your current medications and their doses (including over the counter drugs and vitamins). “Having a list prepared ahead of time ensures that you will not forget to tell the doctor something that could be a key to your treatment options.’

Check (and double check) all prescription labels: Whether it’s a pharmacist that can’t read the doctor’s handwriting or a misplaced decimal point, statistics show that millions of patients each year are affected by simple medication errors that can easily be avoided. Mininno insists that increased awareness can solve this problem. “While the doctor is writing the script, ask exactly what you are being prescribed and what dose will you be taking. Then when you get to the pharmacy, make sure the label matches what you have been told.’ Mininno also advises that you become familiar with the section of the label that describes what the pill should actually look like. “If you don’t feel that the pill you have in the bottle matches the label, call your pharmacist immediately.’

3. Physically mark the site of your surgery: Although this suggestion sounds silly, doctors are actually supposed to mark with a pen the site you will be operated on. “Unfortunately, many doctors ignore this rule and patients end up losing the wrong limb or getting a totally different surgery than what they signed up for,’ says Mininno. Instead, Mininno strongly urges that you take matters into your own hands and physically designate with a pen or a marker the site of your operation and the intended location of the incision.

4. Honesty is the best policy. Mininno encourages patients to remember that doctors are there to help you, not judge you. Therefore, he insists that it’s important to be open and honest with your doctor in every situation. “Sometimes patients are embarrassed to tell their doctor if they are taking medications not prescribed to them or if they have a substance abuse problem. Or it could be as simple as failing to tell your doctor that you never went on that diet program from the previous month.’ Either way, Mininno states that you are setting yourself up for a problem. “If your doctor can not assess the true nature of the situation, you may be prescribed a deadly medication combination or be given treatment for the wrong issue.

Attorney John R. Mininno, Esq