California Medical Malpractice Law Blog

The Los Angeles Times reports that despite medical residents working a reduced number of hours, they still commit an “alarming number” of medical errors.

Beginning July 1, rules will be implemented requiring first-year residents to work no longer than 16 straight hours, however more senior residents may still work longer hours. Citing significance incidences of medical error, a group of 26 doctor and patient experts are calling for all resident physicians to work in shifts no longer than 12 to 16 hours.

In a report resulting from a Harvard Medical School conference published in the journal Nature & Science of Sleep, one of the studies authors stated, “What started as a good system has evolved into a system where the residents are extremely sleep deprived, caring for some of the sickest patients in the country, and that’s a set-up for disaster.”

Statistics show that nearly 180,000 patients die each year due to harm resulting from medical errors committed by residents.

Other recommendations include residents receiving increased supervision by attending physicians and delegating routine work such as blood draws and paperwork to other staff. Although implementing new resident work rules costs money, the expense would be offset by reducing medical errors – as well as improving patient care. The author further notes “Few people enter a hospital expecting that their care and safety are in the hands of someone who has been working a double-shift or more wit no sleep…If they knew, and had a choice, the overwhelming majority would demand another doctor or leave.”

Continue reading " Reducing Residents' Hours Important To Reducing Medical Errors " »

Throughout the last several years, reports of hospital medical errors have been prevalent, with incidents of errors remaining steady, if not increasing. In fact, some reports have placed the number of medical errors occurring in a medical setting as occurring in 1 out of every 10 medical visits, with some 98,000 people dying each year due to medical mistakes.

Now comes a recent Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) medical error study focusing specifically on medical errors that occur in a doctor’s office as opposed to a hospital setting. Based on the June 15th JAMA study, your chances of suffering harm from a medical error are about the same in a doctor’s office as in a hospital.

The most frequent type of error occurring in a doctor’s office is a missed or failed diagnosis. In fact, 46% of the outpatient medical malpractice claims involved diagnostic errors. As explained in the New England Journal of Medicine, diagnostic errors are a major source of problems, often not the result of a single mistakes but a series of break-downs in the process.” For every missed or late diagnosis, an average of three things went wrong. The harm resulting from the error included major injuries and death.

As stated by Tara Bishop lead author of the doctor's office error study, the “sheer number of out-patient related claims was surprising,” suggesting that a reduction in doctors’ office errors needs attentions. However, due the vast number of outpatient sites, addressing changes may be more challenging than in an inpatient setting.

Continue reading " Medical Errors As Common In Doctor’s Offices As In Hospital Setting " »

Bay City news reports that 4 Bay Area hospitals and 12 total California hospitals have been assessed administrative fines as the result of medical licensing violations that are likely to cause death or serious injury to their patients.

These hospitals include:

• Santa Cruz Domincan Hospital;
• Burlingame Mills-Peninsula Medical Center;
• San Francisco Kaiser Foundation Hospital; and
• Martinez Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.

Medical providers are supposed to offer use care and support during our most critical moments. When physicians, nurses or other hospital staff provide us care that falls below requisite standard, they may be guilty of medical malpractice.

Here, the hospitals cited all made significant errors that caused patients harm.

Among the medical errors cited include not following surgical policies and procedures, not following policies and procedures for safe distribution and administration of medication, and not following policies and procedures for on-going patient monitoring and assessment of patient care.

In one incident a the Contra Costa Medical Center, a nurse failed to check a drug label and gave an epidural medication rather than Oxycontin to a 25-year-old woman who gave premature birth. Kaiser Hospital was penalized for leaving a fetal scalp electrode inside a Cesarean section patient. The woman suffered a serious infection. At the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, surgeons left a small sponge fragment in the eye of a glaucoma patient.

Continue reading " 12 California Hospitals Fined For Patient Safety Violations, Including 4 In Bay Area " »