News tagged with 'Medical Malpractice'

For the third straight year, 2008 saw the lowest number of medical malpractice payments. The decline, however, is likely because less injured patients have received compensation, not improved health safety.

With medical costs soaring at an unsustainable level, President Obama told doctors at an annual AMA meeting that cutting down on practicing defensive medicine to avoid lawsuits will be necessary.  The president does not support medical malpractice caps on awards.  

With about five percent of doctors commiting the bulk of medical malpractice, state medical boards are the first defense to weeding out bad docs. This Public Citizen report finds that many states are failing to regulate medical malpractice and the rate of discipline is down from a high in 2004. See how your state ranks. 

Dominick Tenuto, a New York man stricken with polio won a multi million-dollar lawsuit against Lederle Laboratories claiming he contracted the disease 30 years ago from the polio vaccine given to his infant daughter.

Hospitals and doctors turn to a basic of human compassion - saying I'm sorry -  when they make a medical mistake to lower the costs associated with litigation.  About five percent of doctors in the U.S. are responsible for about 54 percent of all malpractice, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Many people who've had a bad experience with a doctor want to warn others so they turn to Web sites that allow patients to share experiences about doctors.   You won't be able to do so if you sign away your rights presented in a form by doctors who join Medical Justice.  

A simple surgical safety checklist reduced patient-mortality and complications by more than a third. If all hospitals were to use the same checklist, they could save tens of thousands of lives and $20 billion in medical costs annually

The lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by actor, Dennis Quaid and his wife has settled for $750,000.  Their newborn twins received an overdose of the drug heparin and they bled out nearly dying. The twins have since recovered, but the Quaids have formed a foundation to inform the public about the "conspiracy of silence" of medical errors that kill 100,000 a year. 

Ethicist Kirk O. Hanson, the Executive Director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California talks to IB news to try and make sense of the actions of abusive teen girls charged with harming elderly Alzheimer's patients. 

Six days and counting and a brief overview is presented here on both candidates health care plans.  Health care and the economy are the top issues. Elizabeth Edwards, who has made health care her top priority, says neither plan offers universal coverage, the cheapest way to go.

A C-section death reminds us of the risks involved with the procedure, even though it is on the increase. Doctors wanting to avoid malpractice and women seeking convenience need to understand the dangers.  

Medicaid will no longer reimburse hospitals for the extra cost of treating patients who are injured due to their own mistakes. For decades hospitals have been reimbursed for their own mistakes and the cost to correct them. But now, the federal government is tired of doctors and hospitals profiting from their mistakes.

An Ellijay couple is charging their former veterinary surgeon with veterinary malpractice for her handing of Marshall, their 13-year-old miniature Schnauzer. The suit has the potential to redefine veterinary care and the relationship between animals and humans.

Nine surgeries were either done on the wrong site, or the wrong surgery was performed in Utah hospitals last year. Of those, seven included foreign objects being left inside the patient.

In an ongoing investigation that started in November 2004, The Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) has made 68 arrests and 29 convictions of individuals who have deliberately used unapproved, cheaper injections as a substitute for FDA-approved Botox Cosmetic.