Delay in diagnosis of lung cancer is a common basis for medical malpractice claims in the State of Ohio. Results of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) published recently in the journal Cancer show that screening of smokers for lung cancer saves lives. In fact, screening of all eligible heavy smokers has the potential to prevent about 12,000 deaths each year [...]
A delay in diagnosis of cancer can spell disaster for young women with breast cancer. Physicians often miss a breast cancer diagnosis in young women because of a simple bias that the disease usually affects only older women. This is just not true. It is well-known that breast cancer can afflict younger women (usually defined as women [...]
Medical errors in pathology often lead to unnecessary treatment or a delayed diagnosis of disease. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology found that mistakes occur in up to 3.5% of prostate biopsies that are analyzed by reference labs. This high error rate is attributed to mis-read pathology and also biopsy specimens being switched [...]
Medical malpractice cases arising out of misread or misreported pathology slides occur with stunning frequency. In point of fact, a patient is at the mercy of the pathologist, a physician who they have never met and know nothing about. Because medical doctors and hospitals need not publicly report mistakes, local physicians who rely on pathology labs [...]
Medical malpractice cases occasionally arise out of decisionmaking about blood transfusions. Blood transfusions involve the administration of whole blood or blood products through an intravenous line (IV) to replace blood lost at surgery or due to hemorrhage following traumatic injury. The procedure is surprisingly common; nearly 5 million patients require blood tranfusions each year in the [...]
Medical errors in the management of suicidal patients is a death sentence. Suicide rates are climbing in the U.S., so primary care providers (PCPs) are facing more encounters with suicidal patients. In this blogpost, I will discuss treatment guidelines set forth in the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry for suicidal patients. The [...]
As we have seen, medical errors occur for many reasons. The Institute of Medicine report, which shows that the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of patients dies every day in American hospitals due to preventable medical mistakes, lays some of the blame on poor institutional practices. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare have leveled criticism at [...]
Why do medical errors or medical mistakes continue to happen? We read about efforts that are being made to improve surgical safety. Timeouts before surgery to make sure that everything is in order are common. Checking patient wristbands is standard practice. Asking patients to state their name and date of birth and whether they understand what [...]
There is an alarming risk of medical malpractice in the treatment of anaphylaxis, according to an article published in the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI). Anaphylaxis is a severe, systemic allergic reaction that affects some people when exposed to certain drugs, foods or bee stings. Anaphylaxis happens quickly after the exposure and involves the whole body, but [...]
Kaiser Health News recently published an article about the risk of medical errors posed by elderly physicians. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), about 42% of U.S. doctors are older than 55 and 21% are older than 65. According to the Kaiser Health News article, "[t]heir ranks are expected to increase as many work past the traditional [...]