ILLINOIS: The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments about the constitutionality of medical malpractice awards caps. The Illinois Medical Malpractice Act of 2005 placed a $500,000 cap for doctors and a $1 million cap for hospitals on non-economic damages (think pain and suffering) in medical malpractice lawsuits. The law allows recovery of medical expenses and lost wages. The case is expected to be decided in 2009.
PENNSYLVANIA: A jury awarded a family a $20.5 million in damages in a medical malpractice suit. The breakdown is $2 million for health care costs and $18.5 million in lost wages and non-economic damages. The award is the largest that Lackawana County and surrounding counties have seen in over a decade. The White family sued Community Medical Center and Dr. Richard Kehlke for negligence during the birth of their son in 2001. The boy has cerebral palsy and no use of his hands.
UTAH: The state legislature’s Heath and Human Interim Committee decided to extend a medical malpractice arbitration act for another decade. In 2003, the state passed a law that allowed doctors to refuse treatment if a patient did not sign a binding arbitration agreement in the case of malpractice. In 2004, a new medical malpractice arbitration act became law that said that doctors must treat patients even if they won’t sign an arbitration agreement.
IOWA: Pamela Rock was concerned about a lump in her left breast in May 2002 and went to her doctor for a mammogram. The doctor said it was normal, but in October 2002, Rock had surgery to remove 6 cancerous lymph nodes and underwent chemotherapy. She filed a negligence lawsuit against the doctor and the medical center in October 2004. According to this The Chicago Tribune, the Iowa Supreme Court sent the case back to district court for further proceedings. The defendants argued the lawsuit was barred by the two-year statute of limitation and the Iowa Court of Appeals agreed. But the Iowa Supreme Court said uh-uh - no summary judgment - trial continues.
WEST VIRGINIA: Speaking of statute of limitations - the West Virginia Supreme Court dismissed a man’s malpractice suit because it was one-year too late.
MASSACHUSETTS: ProMutual Group is cutting their medical malpractice insurance rates for Bay State doctors as medical malpractice cases in Massachusetts have declined. Other insurers - Medical Protective and PMSLIC - have lowered rates already.
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America has been looking at a very serious nursing shortage for some time. There are very few new nurses joining the profession and the average age of qualified nurses is rising. The demand for nurses is growing as the baby boomers reach their sixties and beyond. Every year 100,000 people die due to medical mistakes and preventable accidents in hospitals; many of these occur due to substandard nursing care.
When the patient-to-nurse ratio climbs up, so does the number of the victims of medical errors. Nurses play an important role in surgery after care and in preventing medical errors. It is found that patients who undergo surgeries in hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratio faced a 31% increased risk of dying. The risk of death jumps up by as much as 7% for every additional patient in a nurse’s workload.
Falls are one of the most serious outcomes of higher than optimum patient-to-nurse ratio. When the elderly and ill need to use the bathroom or have soiled themselves they will not wait for more than a few minutes after their call for assistance and will climb out of bed themselves.
The nurses are unable to help the patients as they are overwhelmed by what is expected out of them. Family members can work with the nurses to get the best care for the patient especially at night when a smaller staff is on duty. They can diplomatically let the nurse supervisor know that he/she would be staying with the patient to comfort and help with visits to the bathroom, etc.
The family should understand what is going on in terms of what each tube or wire is for and the function of the IV. They should familiarize themselves with the prescribed medications and dosage to make sure it is dispensed correctly. The family should be aware of the potential problems to watch out for.
In case of any problems, go through the right channels; starting from the nursing supervisor, hospital ombudsman and finally to the hospital administrator’s office. The health department of every state has a complaint division or you can call the State Health Department.
