Claudia Kalb’s article “ Do No Harm,” published in the October 4, 2010, issue of Society, discuses the healthcare professionals’ defensive behavior that causes the malpractices among patients. Kalb reports that since the Health system’s applied the lawyer Boothman’s program of “ disclosure and compensation,” then the number of lawsuits reduced as well as the legal- defense costs have dropped around 61 percent. In 1999, there were around 100,000 Americans people are killed from the preventable medical errors, noted Kalb. Also, the header of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services even claims that there won’t be any refund to the hospitals for preventable medical error cases. According to Kalb, Harvard’s Institute for Professionalism and …show more content…
However, he explains that it’s tough to change a medicine culture since the senior physicians always rank themselves higher and other lower positions rank below. Kalb explains doctors tend to refuse to follow the directions for safety and continue finishing tasks in the way they’re used to. Central-line infection is one of the major causes for fatal death, noted Kalb. Even though changes were made, that safety procedure such as washing hands is necessary, but people aren’t dedicated their time to adapt to these changes. He states that Dr. Gary Kaplan gave his staff members to report concern throughout the system even if it’s a smallest mistake. Kalb explains in order to reduce risks, doctors must learn skills to safety procedure and teamwork techniques from the beginning of their education, having chance to interact with real life situations with team members by using their technical skills. At first, the title of the article Do No Harm: Medical Errors Kill Some 100,00 Americans every year. How we can reverse the trend is straightforward for the reader to effortlessly understand what the author is going to say. The way that medical treatments were somewhat supposed to be safe, has killed hundreds and thousands of Americans every year even
Start by providing a short 4-6-line synopsis of the key elements of the case – and discuss what kind of incident occurred (week 1). In this case, “Medical error kills Hopkins Cancer Patient” by Erika Niedowski, the error was the failure of a planned action to be completed or intended and the use of a wrong plan for instance overdosage of potassium to achieve an aim. These errors were preventable and may not have caused the harm. Preventable adverse drug events and their causes and contributing factors had caused stopped Brianna Cohen's heart.
The tort reform make clinicians have no full responsibilities to compensate for the malpractice, and they will not need pay for the cost. However, this is not mean that it is unfair to patients. For big medical treatments, such as surgeries, patients’ families usually need to sign a contract for possible medical risks that might happen. This is also a protection to doctors. With tort reform, the society become a physician-friendly practice environment.
However, in the case that a malpractice suit goes to court, victims can only receive compensation from the healthcare professional’s liability insurance if and only if some form of actual medical error was made and if said error has been documented or is physically provable in some way, which can be extremely difficult and perhaps even impossible under certain
In the case of Tomcik vs. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Janet Tomcik, the plaintiff, blamed the loss of her right breast on the fact that there was a major delay in her examination and treatment of her tumor. This could be known as nonfeasance negligence, which is the “failure to act when there is a duty to act,” (Pozgar, 2016). The corrections department, or in this case, the defendant, claimed that Tomcik`s cancer was already so developed, that her breast would have been removed regardless of when her official checkup and treatment took place. One stakeholder in this case is Janet Tomcik. She is the patient who not only lost her breast, but endured “physical pain, [and] emotional suffering,” (Tomcik, 1991).
At first I saw this as a simple issue of frivolous lawsuits, but I now see that it is a multi-faceted issue that nearly everyone has a stake in. I have come to the conclusion that tort reform - to some degree - is necessary in order to protect innocent doctors and stimulate the healthcare industry. However, I don’t think tort reform should be to the degree it is described. Patients should be able to file lawsuits after a one year period if necessary, and perhaps caps should not be so low, in order to account for different kinds of damage an individual may
The court found the “Defendant's care of Claimant fell below acceptable standards of practice” (Stashenko, 2015). In 2009 a former inmate of the Hawaii corrections department was awarded close to $1 million in damages for an incident in 2003, in which the physician’s failure to give the correct type and dosage of antibiotic for an infection in his scrotum. This resulted in 6 subsequent surgeries and the removal of his scrotum, rendering him
In his piece, “The Learning Curve,” Dr. Gwande explores the importance of practicing in order to learn a task. He also highlights the moral problem that accompanies practicing on patients. Through his experiences while training to become a surgeon and learning how to put a central line into a patient, Dr. Gwande highlights the importance of practice in medicine. He says,” We need practice to get good at what we do.”
There are times in the medical field that patients become victims of their doctors or surgeons. Some of them might be on purpose, like abuse, others can be honest mistakes, like misreading a dosage. In the medical case I chose it was an honest mistake. The medical case I chose is Donald Church vs. the University of Washington Medical Center. In this case the patient, Donald Church, had had a thirteen inch retractor left in his abdomen, which is better known as the stomach area, after surgery.
“Medical malpractice claims and lawsuits deal with Improper, unskilled, or negligent treatment of a patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional. Negligence is the predominant theory of liability concerning allegations of medical malpractice, making this type of litigation part of Tort Law. Since the 1970s, medical malpractice has been a controversial social issue. Physicians have complained about the large number of malpractice suits and have urged legal reforms to curb large damage awards, whereas tort attorneys have argued that negligence suits are an effective way of compensating victims of negligence and of policing the medical profession. A person who alleges negligent medical malpractice
It It f It frustrates me what Dr. Anna Pou had to go through with the lawsuits of the Memorial Medical Center incident. As Healthcare professionals, being sued for making the rightful decision for the patient and the hospital is unjust. Healthcare professionals like Dr. Pou, have taken the Hippocratic oath, and one of the promises made within that oath is “first, do no harm”. Hospital’s should not be so quick to make such an important decision of pressing charges to their faculty; more trust should be placed in them. In addition, she made it clear her intentions were just to ‘‘help’’ patients ‘‘through their pain,’’ on national television.
Health Care Law: Tort Case Study Carolann Stanek University of Mary Health Care Law: Tort Case Study A sample case study reviewed substandard care that was delivered to Ms. Gardner after having sustained an accident and brought to Bay Hospital for treatment. Dr. Dick, a second-year pediatric resident, was on that day in the ED and provided care for Ms. Gadner. Dr. Moon, is the chief of staff and oversees the credentialing of all physicians at Bay Hospital.
As an aspiring physician in Emergency Medicine, it is hard to describe typical physician workday activities. Every day is unique and filled with many opportunities to learn and develop clinical, interpersonal communication, leadership and critical thinking skills. Despite this, there are certain routine activities which I had the opportunity to observe through my shadowing experience in the Emergency and Operating rooms at California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles. One day, a two year old patient came into the ER after falling and cutting her head. The patient’s mother told the physician that her daughter is nervous and scared.
A poignant recent example of the latter occurred in various Phoenix VA Health Care System facilities. It is estimated that as many as 40 veterans may have died due to a delay in providing them with care. There are millions of records missing, and the medical system is 250,000 pages behind. This may become a national scandal, with incidents also occurring at VA facilities in Miami, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh, among others. If it can be proved that the deaths of these veterans occurred due to medical malpractice or negligence, it provides an example of a typical wrongful death
By this time, the patients will have undergone extreme and undignified situations, and their families will have spent thousands of dollars. This isn’t anyone’s fault in particular, he writes, “in many ways all the parties are simply victims of a larger system that encourages excessive treatment.” Doctors, he writes, often opt out of this system. Murray volunteers “Charlie,” a renowned orthopedist and his personal mentor, as an example.
Some of the ways people get mistreated is things like misdiagnosis, unnecessary surgeries, premature discharge, not ordering the correct tests or not acting upon tests presented, not following up, wrong dosage or medication, leaving things inside the body after surgery, incorrect care in hospitals resulting in bedsores, persistent pain, or pressure ulcers (medicalnewstoday.com). Any of these or more can cause someone to want compensation, however some people don’t gain the money they deserve thanks to the fact that they either don’t have the money to go to court, wait too long, or don’t realize till it’s too late and the statute of limitations is up. Other times when they are brave enough making it to court they need a testimony from a medical personnel, however, they can’t find someone to testify (abpla.org). Usually most people don’t end up making it to court on the grounds that lawyers are expensive and the legal system can take a while, on the other hand, when a malpractice lawsuit is awarded there’s a great deal of money that the hospital’s insurance or the doctor’s insurance has to pay, the payment could be anywhere from hundreds to millions of