Medical Malpractice

• Working to Lower Medication Errors - Credit Where it is Due

  Ken Margolin | February 13, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Michael Leonard, MD, is an anesthesiologist who has written on the subject of medication error reduction. Readers who have followed my blogs may know that the anesthesiology profession was a leader amongst physicians and hospital professionals in analyzing the causes of medication errors and other medical mistakes. The doctors who studied the problem, such as Lucien Leape, MD, and others,...

• Failure to Diagnose on Time

  Ken Margolin | February 12, 2007 2:50 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Doctors who are named defendants in medical malpractice cases based on failure to make timely diagnoses, often complain that the plaintiff's lawyer had the benefit of hindsight that they lacked. A review of cases of late diagnosis, however, shows that the real culprit was often a lack of curiosity by the physician. The best doctors are medical detectives and like the best detectives, they will...

• Causes of Anesthesia Mortality

  Ken Margolin | January 30, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Despite the fact that the anesthesia profession led the way in medical error reduction techniques, there are still too many anesthesia deaths and serious injuries. When anesthesia malpractice occurs, the results are often catastrophic. With general anesthesia, the patient is helpless. Serious anesthesia errors can deprive the brain of oxygen, causing irreversible damage within minutes or result...

• Problem Medical Negligence Areas

  Ken Margolin | January 24, 2007 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  There may be no better way to learn the current areas in which there are the most problems with substandard medical care, than to look at the web site of CRICO/RMF (also known as "Risk Management Foundation"), one of the largest medical malpractice insurers. Risk Management Foundation's web site identifies 4 areas that generate just over 2/3 of all medical malpractice claims. These areas are...

• Spinal Cord Injury

  Ken Margolin | January 22, 2007 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  An estimated 250,000-450,000 Americans are living with spinal cord injury . The primary causes are motor vehicle accidents (nearly 50%), falls, violence (especially gunshot wounds) and sports activities. The majority of victims are males under the age of 30 (some studies indicate that the age range has risen in recent years). Spinal cord injuries are either complete or incomplete and their...

• The Airlines Solution

  Ken Margolin | January 21, 2007 1:10 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A recent article in the Washington Post recounted how a fatal airline crash some years ago prompted fundamental changes in the airline industry. The black box tape revealed that the co-pilot had noticed something amiss, but that the pilot ignored his concerns, reflecting the military-style chain of command. In the modern airlines industry, any individual involved in the flight, from co-pilot to...

• Cancer Misdiagnosis

  Ken Margolin | January 19, 2007 6:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A disturbing study reported in the journal Cancer reported that misdiagnosis of cancer is much more common than realized. Worse, the authors concluded that many of the misdiagnoses caused serious harm to the patient. Time is the key element for people with treatable cancers. Treatment for many types of cancers has improved so that complete recovery and long-term survivability is no longer a...

• More on Medical Miscommunication

  Ken Margolin | January 07, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The image is familiar from television and real life alike: doctors, nurses, orderlies, scurrying through maze-like hospital hallways, off to one task or another. The size and varied crises faced in hospitals makes a certain amount of apparent chaos inevitable. When there is real disorganization, though, the results can be tragic. Miscommunication between medical professionals remains one of the...

• Operating Room Miscommunication

  Ken Margolin | January 06, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I handled a tragic case a few years back, in which a healthy 41 year wife, and mother of 5 children, died during routine surgery due to operating room miscommunication. The woman, Marie, (not her real name) went to her community hospital complaining of stomach pain and inability to keep food down. She was diagnosed with an obstructed bowel due to non-malignant, non-life threatening causes. The...

• Drug Errors Scourge Continues

  Ken Margolin | January 02, 2007 1:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Today's New York Times has a chilling article by Jane E. Brody, detailing a pharmacy error that ended the independence of a previously healthy elderly woman. The pharmacy gave her methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug that suppresses the immune system, instead of her glaucoma drug, methazolamide. The woman took the wrong pills for a month, with a catastrophic result. She ended up in a coma and...