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Phoenix Hospital Malpractice Lawyers
When Hospital Errors Cause Serious Injuries …
Studies show that hospitals often fail to meet our expectations for the health and safety of patients in their care. When the hospital staff fails to provide effective diagnosis, treatment and care, when that failure leads to serious injuries or wrongful death, talk to an experienced lawyer about hospital malpractice.
Hospital Malpractice ∙ Medical Mistakes
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Hospital errors are critical problem in America. The prestigious Academy of Science Institute of Medicine concluded over 98,000 people die every year from hospital errors. That makes hospital errors the 4th leading cause of death in this country. According to a report recently released by the agency's inspector general, Medicare inspectors need to do a better job of not only informing rating agencies of the errors, but also tracking reports of serious mistakes in care in the nation's hospitals.
In the report, Inspector General Daniel Levinson states how hundreds of serious errors are going unnoticed, all because the inspectors that are finding the problems aren't telling the national agencies that accredit hospitals.
Levinson also stated that no one tracks the effectiveness of policy changes or how the hospitals are actually correcting their mistakes.
Also, about 15,000 Medicare patients have died each month because of the treatments they receive in a hospital, which the inspector general discovered last year. This most recent report focuses on the "immediate jeopardy complaints," or the worst errors. These include surgeries being performed on the wrong patients, sexual assault, surgical fires, patient suicides, and medical instruments being left inside a patient after surgery.
State survey and certification agencies are supposed to check complaints and report them to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). When this is done, it should lead to a review to determine whether or not the hospital has fixed the problem and if it will still be able to work with Medicare.
However, the report shows that out of 88 sampled immediate jeopardy complaints, CMS regional offices were notified of only 28.
This means hospitals aren't being informed of what they should fix. In some cases, state agencies didn't bother telling the hospitals of the nature of the mistakes, because they wanted to keep the complainant's identity protected.
Levinson has recommended the following steps:
- CMS should evaluate compliance with quality-assurance measurements.
- State agencies should monitor hospitals' improvements.
- CMS should make it clear that state agencies tell hospitals what mistakes they've made.
- CMS should notify accreditors when hospitals make mistakes.
Medicare Administrator Don Berwick also agrees with Levinson's recommendations, and said that several improvements have already been made.
At Snyder & Wenner, P.C. we want to help this community be safe when hospital care is need. We have become patient safety advocates through what we have seen representing patients who have been harmed from hospital error. If you suspect that hospital malpractice seriously injured or killed a loved one, contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Snyder & Wenner, P.C. in Phoenix, Arizona.
What kinds of hospital mistakes cause serious injury or death?
For more than 25 years, our lawyers have built a reputation for investigating and litigating medical malpractice cases including mistakes made by hospitals. Common mistakes include:
- Failure of the staff to diagnose a serious health condition
- Failure to administer the correct treatment
- Failure to carry out physician orders
- Failure to report changes in patient condition
- Failure to order necessary diagnostic testing
- Failure to correctly read lab results
- Failure to challenge a bad order
- Failure to begin treatment of a serious medical condition in time
- Incorrect administration of medications
- Improper use of medical equipment
- Improper monitoring of patients
- Failure to properly count materials and tools used in surgery
- Failure to properly monitor the patient
- Failure to prevent post-operation infections due to poorly regulated safety procedures or violated rules of conduct
We work with clients to hold hospitals accountable for mistakes.
Our law firm takes the most serious cases — those that involve catastrophic injury or wrongful death. Our attorneys give full attention to each case, consulting with medical experts and preparing the case for trial.
As experienced trial lawyers, we do not take chances. We test our presentations to make sure we are presenting information in an understandable, effective, convincing way. Our verdicts and settlements demonstrate how we have helped clients obtain the compensation they need. For a free consultation, contact Snyder & Wenner, P.C..
