According to a September 2015 report by the non-profit Institute of Medicine, as many as 5% of Americans are misdiagnosed, and these faulty, missed, or delayed diagnoses contribute to 10% of patient deaths. For those who are not killed by these mistakes, they cause between 6 and 17 percent medical errors in hospitals. Diagnostic errors are the… Read More
Failure to Notify Patient of Abnormal Test Results
Oftentimes when a patient visits their doctor or a hospital, a number of diagnostic tests are performed for a variety of reasons. The test results may be critically important to the health of the patient, but only if they are actually reviewed and correctly interpreted by their health professional. What can happen when the test results… Read More
Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)
Strokes are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, 130,000 Americans die annually each year from stroke. 795,000 Americans experience a stroke yearly, and many of these stroke result in long-term disability. A stroke is a brain injury. Our brains need oxygen. The brain comprises 2% of body weight, but… Read More
Failure to Diagnose Compartment Syndrome
Patients frequently visit the Emergency Department with musculoskeletal injuries, including fractures. The standard practice is for the doctors to obtain radiographic images (X-rays), then reduce and immobilize the fracture. If the fracture is fairly simple to reduce, without the need for neurovascular injury, then the patient is generally referred to an orthopedic surgeon, a doctor… Read More
Melanoma: Failure to Diagnose
A review of data from a physician owned professional liability insurer in the US that insures over 1,000 pathologists throughout the country reveals a recurrent problem in the misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose melanoma. A study done by the liability insurer of all pathology claims reported between 1990 to 2001 demonstrated that 8.6% of these claims… Read More
Preventable Deaths Caused by Advanced Trauma Life Support Errors
A 2011 study in the Journal of Trauma concluded, after a retrospective study of deaths due to mechanical trauma, that the overall preventable death rate in trauma was 7%, and of those patients who survived to be treated at a hospital, the preventable death rate was 11%. The study found “opportunities for improvement” in care… Read More
Dangerous Doctors: Physicians Abusing Prescription Drugs
It sounds like something out of a soap opera, but unfortunately, it’s happening in hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country: doctors find themselves abusing drugs, putting patients at risk of improper care or even injury. Dangerous Statistics Physicians are actually five times as likely to abuse prescription drugs when compared with members of the… Read More
Medication Errors Are Not Uncommon in Nursing Homes
Many nursing homes under-employ staff with the experience and ability to administer medications correctly. As a result, medication errors occur all too frequently, often with devastating outcomes to patients who are given the wrong medication or the wrong regimen or dose of medication. If your loved one in a nursing home has suffered a serious… Read More
Why Won’t an Attorney Take My Medical Malpractice Case?
Despite propaganda from the insurance lobby and medical societies of a “medical malpractice lawsuit crisis,” the truth is that the vast majority (over 95%) of cases of medical malpractice never result in lawsuits or claims against the negligent doctor or medical institution. Although a person may clearly have received substandard medical care resulting in an injury,… Read More
Women Cancer Victims Receive Less Fertility Counseling Than Men
The medical malpractice attorneys of Passen & Powell have previously written on a recent study showing that young women being treated for cancer are frequently left without effective pre-treatment counseling about the possible effects of the treatments on their future fertility. This is in direct violation of the guidelines of the American Society of Clinical… Read More
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »