Indiana Injury Law Blog

It’s a fact that Indiana medical malpractice lawyers have long been aware of. Every year, thousands of patients are severely or fatally injured from errors made by their doctors, and a new study shows that there are internal factors that increase the risk of such medical errors.

A study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic confirms that the risk of medical errors made by residents, increases with the doctor's fatigue and stress levels. The study surveyed 430 internal medical residents who were questioned every three months from 2003 to 2008 about any medical errors they made, as well as stress, fatigue, burnout, sleepiness and depression.

• Out of 370 residents who answered questions about medical errors, 39 percent admitted that they had made at least one major medical error.
• There was also a connection between these medical errors and tiredness. The researchers found that for every single point increase in fatigue, the resident's chances of making a medical error increased by 14 percent.
• Also, for every single point increase in the sleepiness score, the chances of making an error increased by 10 percent.
• Besides sleepiness and fatigue, medical errors were also more frequently seen in doctors suffering from depression, or experiencing burnout symptoms.

This much is clear - the overall quality of a doctor's life has much to do with his potential for making medical errors. These risks are not an exaggeration. According to the Institute of Medicine, every year approximately 100,000 Americans die from preventable medical errors. It’s therefore important that we identify measures that can help them manage stress and fatigue better.

There is some good news for Merrillville medical malpractice lawyers, who would like to see more attention focused on this problem. Hospitals are taking the question of stress and fatigue more seriously than before, and some changes have been made to doctor training to address fatigue and stress issues. Although these measures are important, we need to do much more to promote the well being of doctors, and reduce the possibility of errors. Besides, there is also very little attention being paid to older doctors, in the 65 to 70 age group. These doctors may deal with stress and fatigue in different ways, making it important to identify de-stressing measures for them too.

It doesn’t take super smarts to understand that a tired, stressed and depressed doctor is less likely to be invested in the care of his patients. Too many lives are lost every year to mistakes made by doctors, and as Indiana medical malpractice lawyers, we believe we should be giving this problem the attention it deserves.

A survey of nurses and patients taken over the past year shows what Merrillville medical malpractice lawyers have known all along - that hospitals may actually be much more dangerous and unsanitary than we know.

That scary fact comes via a survey of nurses and patients published by Consumer Reports in its September 2009 magazine. Consumer Reports surveyed both nurses and patients about hospital conditions. The differences in the responses of both, were startling.

While 4% of patients reported seeing problems with hospital cleanliness, 28% of nurses reported seeing such problems.
While care coordination was an issue with 13% of patients, it was a problem reported by at least 38% of nurses.
Worse, only 5% of patients reported that hospital staff sometimes failed to wash their hands, but that is a much bigger problem than we think. 26% of nurses reported that doctors and nurses sometimes failed to wash their hands before approaching patients.

The data reveals that patients may often be unaware of unsanitary and inefficient conditions in the hospital. This can be extremely dangerous because when a patient gets admitted to a hospital, he does so with full faith in the hygiene and sanitary conditions at the facility. But all too often, patients are injured by medication errors, contract infections from unsanitary conditions, and have their care otherwise compromised by inefficiency.

The nurses in the Consumer Reports survey have recommended steps that patients can take to ensure a safe hospital stay.

Make sure that you choose the best and right hospital for your illness. The Consumer Reports survey showed that a mere 11% of patients chose a hospital based on its record in treating their illness, while just 2% based their choice on hospital ratings. The nurses recommend choosing a well rated hospital that has a good record of treating your condition.

Less than 2% of American hospitals have electronic record systems, which means that it's more than likely that your hospital maintains its records the old fashioned, prone-to-errors way. The nurses in the survey recommend that you keep a printout detailing your medications, illness history, and any past surgeries, for quick reference by those who are treating you.

Care coordination is often a problem, with 13% of patients reporting disjointed care. This is often the result of several doctors being involved in your case. Take a family member of friend with you to coordinate care with doctors and specialists on your behalf. You can also ask for a case manager or social worker to coordinate care with your doctors.

Check medications before taking them. As Indiana medical malpractice lawyers, we often see that medication errors are some of the biggest contributing factors to patient injuries.

Make sure you understand all your discharge instructions carefully. This includes medication schedules, and other instructions.

As a patient, you also have the right to ask your doctors to wash their hands in front of you before they attend to you. Don’t be embarrassed or shy - your health depends on it.

He might have meant it as a standard operating procedures to placate health care reform opponents, but so far, there is little to indicate that President Obama’s proposal to grant funds to states to help cut down on medical malpractice lawsuits, has huge support.

Last week, the administration announced that it would grant $25 million to states and health care agencies to evaluate means of reducing the number of "frivolous" lawsuits. According to the White House, the money must be used to help identify and evaluate alternative measures that can minimize such lawsuits. For instance, some states have been flirting with proposals that will allow doctors and hospitals to admit errors and apologize for these, to avoid a lawsuit. States would be encouraged to evaluate the success of such measures, and adopt these.

If the President intended to bring both sides of the debate to speak in a single voice, he succeeded, but not in the way he'd probably hoped. The announcement has been criticized by Republicans and tort reform advocates, as well as patient safety groups. Opponents believe that the grants are too small a step to impact what they like to call, an "epidemic" of medical malpractice lawsuits in the country. Patient safety advocates believe that the grants will do nothing to win support for Obama's reforms, and may actually compromise the rights of injured patients to seek justice.

As Indiana medical malpractice lawyers, we have to agree that the vitriol against justice for injured patients and medical malpractice lawyers in the name of tort reform, is not going to dissipate because of these funds.

The fact is that malpractice insurance in this country has barely little to do with inflating healthcare costs. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, medical malpractice payouts only account for about 2 percent of healthcare costs in the country, and that’s a fact.

The $25 million will do little to raise overall quality and care at some of our worst hospitals, and prevent the kind of wrong diagnoses, surgical errors, emergency room errors and other medical mistakes that are responsible for these lawsuits in the first place.

Theodoros & Rooth believes that the best form or Tort Reform is to institute reforms aimed at cutting down on the number of patient deaths and injuries, which have been estimated to be as high as 100,000 per year.