The Kipness Law Firm, P.C

The following is a guest blog from Dallas –based Rasansky Law Firm:

Failure to Treat is a Form of Medical Malpractice

Is a failure to treat a condition a case of medical malpractice? According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, U.S. healthcare can actually contribute to poor health. Consider some of these alarming statistics. In the U.S., there are 12,000 patients that die because of unnecessary surgery. There are 7,000 patients that die because of medication errors. Furthermore, 20,000 patients die because of other errors and 80,000 infections occur because of treatment.

With so many expensive errors being made on a yearly basis it’s no wonder that doctors are often hesitant to order any medical treatment that isn’t absolutely required. However, this does not make the failure to treat a condition acceptable. Doctors have been given a responsibility: to examine for the threat of disease and to take prompt action when discovering its presence. The doctor is not expected to save a person’s life, not from a legal standpoint. But he does owe the patient an acceptable standard of care that has been set by top-performing doctors in this field. The doctor should not be hesitant to perform his duty according to the standards set by her own industry. This is the only obligation, and such model of conduct if followed will not expose the doctor to the threat of medical malpractice.

However, the failure to diagnose and the failure to treat a disease in its early stages is indeed a major oversight. It is a costly mistake for both the patient and the doctor when this happens. For example, cancer can sometimes be successfully removed when a doctor and patient agree to prompt diagnosis and surgical or radiation treatment. In fact, this story from Fox News actually suggests that the parents of a patient who willfully did not seek out medical treatment for their sick child (a sickness that could have been treated and typically had a 95 percent treatment success rate) may have broken the law.

Indeed, when a doctor fails to live up to his responsibility and there is a failure to treat a condition early on, the patient’s life is needlessly risked. Most patients have to be subjected to much harsher and riskier treatment for advanced levels of diseases. In fact, if some diseases or symptoms that appear to be related to a disease are ignored it can result in wrongful death.

Failure to treat disease can involve any of these specific shortcomings:

• Failing to perform medical tests
• Failing to treat a known medical condition
• Failing to refer a patient to other specialist
• Failing to advise a patient of all medical options
• Failing to treat a patient because she has no insurance
• Failing to recognize and treat heart emergency symptoms in the ER

The Merck Online Medical Library states clearly the standard quality of care when it comes to cancer diagnosis: “[Examinations] should be part of a routine checkup; more frequent examinations may be needed for people at high risk for developing skin cancer.”

If there has been a failure to treat your condition by a doctor and your medical ailments have become worse because of that mistake, then you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the Rasansky Law Firm at 1-800-ATTORNEY. Medical malpractice is never your fault, not when it’s your trust that has been violated.

The personal injury attorneys of Rasansky Law Firm have extensive experience handling a broad range of cases including medical malpractice, vehicle accidents, birth injury and much more. In a world of WE, US, and I, Rasansky Law Firm is committed to the revolutionary idea of YOU. 

The Chicago Tribune reported that the Illinois Supreme Court overturned a medical malpractice law on the grounds the law, which placed limits on damages awarded to patients, was unconsitutional.

Hospitals and doctors say caps on damages for medical malpractice is necessary to reduce rising health care costs.   The law was passed on 2005 and its purpose was to limit compensation to patients for pain and suffering and other non-economic damages such as mental anguish, impairment, and disfigurement.  The caps limited these types of damages to $500,000 in cases against doctors and $1,000,000 in cases against hospitals.

Doctors have complained their medical malpractice premiums will increase because of this ruling.  They argue an increase in premiums will cause Illinois doctors to leave Illinois and practice medicine in other states.  Opponents have stated there is no evidence that rising malpractice premiums have caused doctors to retire or leave the state.

The Illinois Supreme Court stated the seperation of powers (between the branches of government) clause was violated because the law allowed the state legislature to interfere with a jury’s right to determine damages in a medical malpractice case. 

The underlying case made the basis of this appeal involved a 4 year old girl who suffered a brain injury during her birth. 

There are disputes on whether damage cap laws actually reduce the costs of health care.  The U.S. Congressional Budget office has stated caps on non-economic damages could only lower the cost of healthcare by 0.5 percent.

A professor from Penn Law School has written a book titled “The Medical Malpractice Myth.”  Professor Tom Baker is of the opinion that lawyers are less likely to take cases from lower-earning people because the potential recovery is smaller when non-economic damages are limited.  

Texas also has caps on a non-economic damages in medical malpractice and nursing home abuse cases.  The caps are limited to $250,000 for cases against doctors and $500,000 for cases involving two or more hospitals.

We hope the right attorney with the right case will challenge the Texas cap on non-economic damages.  We believe the Illinois Supreme Court reason is logical and makes sense.  Jury awards should not be disturbed by legislatures.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that medication errors result in at least one death per day and cause personal injuries to 1.3 million Americans per year.  

Nurses can misunderstand abbreviations on a pharmacy order.  Examples of deaths from medication errors are: (1) accidental overdose of a drug that slows the heart rate; (2) i.v. fluids administered at too high of a level after surgery on a child; and (3) confusion over drug names that leads to addition of insulin to infant’s i.v. instead of the correct medication such as an anti-clotting drug.

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists launched the National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors.  This network will send e-mail alerts to pharmacists, doctors, and nurses when a life-threatening or death causing medication error is reported.  The goal is to spread the word about the consequences of medication errors.

Medication errors have increased because of pressure for hospitals to cut costs via stretching of their staff in these tough economic times.  A survey of 850 nurses and pharmacists revealed 20% of them reported making a medication mistakes with insulin, narcotics, heparin, and chemotherapy.

Consumers can sign up for customized alerts about medications they take and report problems to http://www.consumermedsafety.org.     To avoid medication errors, consumers should ask healthcare providers to explain what medications are being given and what are the correct dosages. 

Some patient safety experts say this network is not enough and there needs to be other techniques implemented such as electronic medical records (elminates bad doctor handwriting) and bar coding systems (confirms drugs match with patient’s age, condition, or diagnosis). 

The reporting of medication errors by health care providers is confidential and cannot be used in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Hopefully, this network will decreased the amount of indviduals who are victims of medical malpractice due to medication errors committed by their healthcare providers or pharmacists.