Medical malpractice claims arising from improper treatment of atrial fibrillation are not uncommon. Negligence on the part of the doctor can lead to stroke or death among other complications. Atrial fibrillation is a very common abnormal heart rhythm. It is estimated that well over 2,000,000 patients in the U.S. suffer from this abnormal cardiac rhythm. [...]
Medical malpractice claims due to respiratory arrest can happen due to miscommunication between the surgical team, the anesthesia team, the post anesthesia caregivers and the caregivers that assume care of the patient on the medical surgical floor after surgery. Sudden respiratory arrest with catastrophic results in the immediate postoperative period is frequently due to the [...]
Many people are nervous before "going under" during surgery. As patients, we worry about potential side effects and complications. However, we should not have to worry that our anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists will make a mistake when administering the anesthesia. Unfortunately, serious anesthesia errors do occur. While the number of anesthesia errors has gone down [...]
Medical errors are one of the Nation's leading causes of death and injury. How can you prevent medical errors? First it is important to understand what is a medical error. Any preventable occurrence in the care and treatment of a patient that results in an adverse outcome, is a medical error. When a preventable occurrence [...]
Medical malpractice or invasion of privacy - or both? A recent lawsuit was filed by a patient that had her medical records sent without her consent. We all trust that our medical records will be maintained in a confidential manner and only disclosed with our permission for appropriate use. But what happens when the rules [...]
Patient safety is vital. Being a patient safety advocate involves fighting for accountability and change. Should a patient suffer an adverse outcome that was preventable and avoidable? No! While bad results can occur, when a death or serious injury occurs should a doctor or nurse be treated any differently than you or I? No. People [...]
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, recently conducted a study that found that hospital websites may overestimate the benefits and ignore the risks of using robotic surgery at their facilities. After analyzing 400 randomly-selected websites for hospitals with 200 or more beds across the U.S., the researchers found that about [...]
Any steps hospitals and clinics can take to reduce medical errors will in turn decrease avoidable outcomes and the necessity of medical malpractice lawsuits. An Ohio program designed to reduce adverse drug effects and infections among patients has received national recognition for its proven contributions to patient safety. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [...]
Please note that in the case of Tausch vs. Riverview Health Inst., 187 Ohio App. 3d 173 (Feb. 12, 2010), the Second District Court of Appeals in Montgomery County held that the statute of limitations applicable to a physician is tolled under the termination rule until the physician/patient relationship for the condition at issue has [...]
Frequently, injuries occur in a hospital as a result of negligence against a nurse or other hospital employee and the question becomes whether the claim is a medical claim (otherwise known as a medical negligence claim) or a standard common law negligence claim. The distinction may seem to be insignificant, but the consequences of the [...]