The Utah Supreme Court recently held that health care providers cannot force the spouse and children into arbitration for wrongful death claims due to medical malpractice. In Bybee v. Abdulla, the plaintiff brought a claim for wrongful death when her husband died as a result of alleged medical negligence. The healthcare provider had an arbitration agreement with the deceased husband and claimed that the arbitration agreement also waived the wife's right to go to court.... even while the healthcare provider retained their right to sue the husband for collection of fees. The Utah Supreme Court recognized that the wife and her children did not agree to arbitration and could not be forced to give up their rights of court access to redress the wrong. The full case can be read here (pdf).

175 surgical mistakes in 30 months. That's the number of times a surgeon or hospital made a mistake which actually caused harm to a patient. 253 close calls. That's the number of times medical professionals made a mistake, but corrected the error before any 'harm' to the patient. Obviously, it's not that there are too many lawsuits, lawyers, or 'greedy' plaintiffs, it's that there are too many surgeons, hospitals, and nurses committing errors. If 175 airplanes fell out of the sky every month, due to pilot error, would we blame the families seeking compensation for the loss of their mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and siblings? As the saying goes, don't hate the players, hate the game. It's time for serious medical reform, an open system where mistakes are not hidden from patients and where those making the mistakes don't blame the victims for seeking compensation because they had their thyroid gland removed for cancer, only to find out the lab screwed up and there was no cancer in the first instance. For all of the grim details, you can get the June 26, 2007 report direct Patient Safety Authority, a Pennsylvania state run and funded organization created to reduce the number of people injured by medical malpractice. Utah should be so lucky to get such an organization..

"Hospitals are terrible places for sick people." Reaffirming the idea that, if you've got humans involved, you will have human error, a recent Forbes article discusses the seven scariest hospital risks. The article does an excellent job of detailing the inherent problems in our hospital industry, and offers helpful advice on how to avoid becoming the victim of medical mistakes which include surgeon errors, infection, and incorrect medications. The article observes that: "between 40,000 and 100,000 people die every year because of doctors' mistakes, including surgical mishaps and drug mix-ups. One big problem: Hospital patients may get the wrong drug one time out of five, according to a study by Auburn University. The death toll from mistakes is at least as bad as that from car accidents or breast cancer, and maybe as bad as that from strokes."

Robert Bork, a former United States Supreme Court nominee, and ardent supporter of 'tort reform' filed a slip and fall lawsuit against Yale Club recently. Apparently, Bork fell while attempting to step up onto the dais to give a speech. He suffered a hematoma in his leg, head injuries and months of physical therapy. Prior to this fall, Bork supported the idea that there are too many personal injury lawsuits and that reform was needed to curb an alleged overabundance of lawsuits. Of course, personal injury lawsuits only make up a small percentage of court cases, and Bork can now count himself lucky that reforms haven't prevented him from seeking compensation for the failure of Yale Club to provide adequate stairs and a handrail.

“A former insurance commissioner has accused the nation’s 15 leading medical malpractice insurers of unnecessarily driving up health care costs by falsely claiming that a medical malpractice crisis exists and ‘price gouging’ physicians. Former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff, now an attorney with Roger Brown & Associates of Jefferson City, Mo. made his accusations in a report, ‘No Basis for High Insurance Rates: An Analysis of the 15 Largest Medical Malpractice Insurers’ 2006 Financial Statements.’ The Washington-based American Assn. for Justice, a plaintiffs’ attorneys-supported research organization, commissioned the report.”

Dave Lenckus, Business Insurance 5/24/07

Also See, Accuse Med Mal Insurers of Price-Gouging, National Underwriter 5/29/07

Full Report by Jay Angoff: No Basis for High Insurance Rates