Medical Malpractice

According to a 2006 Washington Post report, at least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured, or killed every year due to avoidable prescription medication errors. These often dangerous prescriptions errors can effect: product labeling and packaging; dispensing of medicine; education; monitoring and use; compounding; and prescribing. In addition, mistakes in administering drugs are so common in hospitals that, [...]

Tweet According to a 2011 study, one out of every three people in the United States will experience some form of medical mistake during a hospital stay. The study tracked errors using previously unused measurement for hospital error developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Massachusetts in three different hospitals and discovered rates that were 10 times higher [...]

Tweet Despite mandatory rules introduced in 2004 by the Joint Commission (the Chicago-based group that accredits the hospitals in the United States) to help prevent wrong-site or wrong-patient surgeries, these types of surgical errors are continuing to adversely affect the lives of patients. According to a Washington Post article, the Joint Commission estimates that wrong-site [...]

Tweet The National Cancer Institute estimates that by the end of 2011, there will be over 230,000 new cases of female breast cancer and over 39,000 deaths because of the disease in the United States. October was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), helping promote awareness and understanding of a disease affecting hundreds of thousands of women every day. Breast canc [...]

An increasing number of medical professionals are playing with their cell phones, iPads, and other technological devices while also tending to patients, a situation that might result in dangerous medical mistakes due to inattention, according to a recent article in Information Week. Recently, The New York Times cited several examples of doctors, nurses, and other professionals using gadgets for personal reasons wh [...]

The New York Daily News reports that the mother of a man from the Bronx is suing the hospital where her son was being treated for depression, paranoia, and being suicidal. The 30-year-old man was allowed to leave the hospital, despite being a danger to himself, and leapt off a building to his death just days after being released. According to the man’s sister, he went to the hospital because he was very depress [...]

“I’m happy [about the verdict] but I’d give every dime back to walk,” says a Staten Island man who recently won a multimillion-dollar medical malpractice suit. According to a story on silive.com, following a health episode in 2006, the man was taken to the hospital where he required sedation and intubation. His doctors diagnosed him with encephalopathy, meaning brain dysfunction. The man was already suff [...]

There has been extensive debate in New York recently about its medical malpractice insurance crisis, according to The Times Union. Though some studies have shown that implementing certain safety protocols can decrease malpractice premiums, specifically in obstetrics, realists understand that a true solution to the malpractice crisis is not so simple. Many believe tort reform is essential to overcoming the malpracti [...]

The New York Department of Health offers several resources for patients to use when choosing a doctor. By learning about a physician’s education, licensing, background, and complaint history, patients can make choices that help steer them away from the risks of medical malpractice and the serious injuries that can result. First, New York residents can search the Department of Health’s physician records to fin [...]

When a physician or other health care professional fails to use reasonable care to treat a patient, New York law gives the injured patient certain legal rights and options. Along with the choice to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, patients may report physician misconduct to the New York Department of Health. The New York Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct investigates complaints aga [...]