A doctor’s preventable mistake at Tufts Medical Center spotlights a lesser-known cause of potential deadly hospital errors: cognitive bias. The Boston Globe recently reported the story of a woman who died at Tufts after a procedure to relieve pain from back injury. A report filed…
On August 4, Spectrum Health entered into a confidential settlement with a family whose child suffered brain damage as a result of a negligently performed blood transfusion. The settlement put an end to a two-year legal battle and the family’s four-year struggle to make the…
Until last year, no one had issued a comprehensive assessment of the risk of patient harms associated with hospital care since a 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) study that used data from 1984. After 30 years, we finally have new information about how many deadly…
The term “black box” is commonly associated with the aviation industry; indeed, when a plane crash occurs, an expert team immediately sets out to retrieve the black box to determine the cause of the crash. A “black box” is just a device that records and…
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report found that medical malpractice lawsuits in Wisconsin have plummeted while the state’s malpractice insurance fund ballooned. Medical malpractice filings have decreased more than 50% since 1999, but the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, into which he
Families looking for a nursing home for an elderly loved one have a difficult challenge. They often rely on the appearance of the facility and the friendliness of the staff to gauge the quality of a nursing home. When a facility is clean and well-kept…
Tort reform has been a major buzz word in the past decade for its supposed impact on medical costs. While many studies have shown jury awards in medical malpractice suits have no impact on medical costs, the push for tort reform continues. One approach toward…
When a loved one can’t care for him or herself, family members often feel the best choice is to put that person in a facility that can offer proper care. It takes an enormous amount of trust to leave someone dear to you in the…
Whenever a doctor settles a medical malpractice lawsuit, or a jury verdict is awarded against a doctor, that information goes into a National Practitioner Data Bank. This data bank is a big reason why many doctors refuse to agree to settlements, even for obvious malpractice…
A deadly New Jersey Turnpike wreck involving a tractor trailer and a limousine carrying former Saturday Night Live comedian Tracy Morgan has increased pressure on Congress to not loosen limits on how long truckers can drive before taking a break. Police in New Jersey say…
Sen. Mark Warner, (D-VA), is telling federal regulators and the oil and rail industries that there must be action to reduce public risk from trains carrying hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil. Warner held a safety forum on train safety in Richmond, Virginia…
Sometimes years-long investigations by federal, state, local and company officials follow any accident involving a train. Regardless of whether the rail mishap was a derailment, collision, cargo spill, fire or explosion, hundreds of experts devote thousands of hours to determining the cause. Nationa