Providence, Rhode Island Medical Malpractice Blog

When it comes to your health, you should not take any chances. In order to make the best decisions, you need to have all the information available; but nowadays, with the changes in modern medicine, we are often left waiting for doctor's offices to call us when we should be calling them. Waiting for test results can be a dangerous game.

Errors in patient diagnoses account for 40 percent of all medical malpractice claims. A good proportion of these claims stem from the failure of medical personnel to pass along test results to patients. With malpractice payouts due to communication failures more than quadrupling over the period from 1991 to 2010, getting your test results has never been more important.

Electronic medical records have been widely touted as a way to maximize efficiency in the American health care system. Indeed, the push to abandon paper records is so strong that the federal government is spending $27 billion over the next 10 years to induce hospitals and doctors' offices to purchase electronic record-keeping systems.

However, concerns are emerging that this transition may not be in patients' best interests. Rhode Island medical malpractice lawyers and patient advocates are warning Americans that electronic medical records could subject them to increased risk of medical error.

Hospital errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people every year. Electronic medical records were initially sold as a way to reduce this number - for example, they can automatically notify a doctor who attempts to prescribe a drug a patient is allergic to and can warn of potential dangerous interactions between medicines.

As breast cancer awareness month comes to a close, the 19^th annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk was a Sunday success, despite the snowy start. 14,000 walkers were expected and organizers hoped to raise $900,000 at the Providence event to support breast cancer research by the American Cancer Society.

As the most common cancer affecting American women other than skin cancer, the American Cancer Society reports that 1 in 8 women will develop some form of invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. Breast cancer is also the second most likely to be fatal in women, exceeded only by lung cancer in female cancer-related fatalities.

As with many cancers, the key to a successful battle begins with early detection and correct diagnosis. Women diagnosed at stage 0, stage I or stage IIA have over an 80 percent change of living five or more years following diagnosis. Those diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, the most advanced stage, historically have only a 15 percent chance of living five or more years beyond the diagnosis.

As with many forms of cancer, early detection of ovarian cancer is key to successful treatment. Unfortunately for women with ovarian cancer, it's not uncommon for symptoms to be dismissed as related to a non-life-threatening condition, delaying diagnosis and treatment. That is one of the main reasons why ovarian cancer is so deadly. Statistics show that two out of every three women eventually diagnosed with ovarian cancer will die from the disease.

Only 15 percent of women with ovarian cancer are properly diagnosed early enough to improve survival rates. Once the cancer has spread, which is often when it is correctly diagnosed, five-year-survival rates can be as low as 30 percent. Rhode Island cancer misdiagnosis attorneys want everyone to understand the early warning signs of ovarian cancer and encourage all women to get a second opinion if they feel their symptoms are being ignored.

From 2002-2009, 34 percent of expectant mothers delivered via Caesarean section (C-section), up from approximately 1 in 4 births in prior years to 1 in 3. This is far above the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended target rate for C-sections of 15 percent.

C-sections are common among women who give birth to twins, triplets or more, as well as those who have been identified as at-risk during delivery because of high blood pressure, diabetes. The use of an epidural and inducing labor can also lead to complications that may warrant a C-section.

But, the fact is that many C-sections that happen do not happen for medical reasons, but rather as a matter of convenience. Some women and their physicians schedule C-sections so the timing of the birth is right. The concern surrounding the rising rate is related to C-sections that are performed even when signs that a C-section may be necessary are not present.

The Joint Commission and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality asserts that the number of c-sections performed in certain types of pregnancies should be reduced and that data does not support a medical necessity for the rising rate of C-sections.

For heart attack patients, time is critical. Heat attack misdiagnosis or delays in heart attack treatment can lead to serious health consequences including death. In the world of heart attack treatment, minutes can mean saving a life, preventing further damage to the heart and improving the likelihood of recovery.

Standard medical protocols advise medical personnel to transfer heart attack patients to a hospital able to perform lifesaving medical procedures to open blocked articles within 30 minutes of the patient's arrival at an ill-equipped hospital. Yet, according to a study conducted at Duke University, only about one in 10 patients were moved to another hospital within the recommended timeframe.

The study revealed that over half the patients spent more than an hour at an ill-equipped hospital; almost a third of those heart-attack patients stayed longer than an hour and a half. The median time a heart-attack patient was kept at a hospital unable to perform lifesaving artery-opening procedures was slightly over an hour.

Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's panel of health advisors voted to recommend placing additional dosing information on labels of medicines containing acetaminophen, a common fever reducer and pain reliever. Currently, labels of acetaminophen-containing drugs like Children's Tylenol provide dosing instructions for children over two years old.

For children under age two, the labels instruct parents to ask their doctor for an appropriate dose. The recommended dosing instructions are intended to protect young children from the risk of a drug overdose or medication error by supplying guidelines for dosing children between 6 months and two years old.

Protecting Children from Acetaminophen Overdosing

According to FDA data, acetaminophen-related overdoses are most common in children under two years old, and the number of these types of overdoses has increased over the past 10 years. The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 270,000 overdoses of acetaminophen in 2010, and dosing errors accounted for 7,500 of those cases.

Communication is key for patient safety and treatment in emergency rooms in Rhode Island and across the country. Mistakes made simply because a doctor or nurse did not get information from someone else that they needed to make a proper diagnosis, decision to admit or discharge order, are entirely avoidable.

Insurer Circo/RMF suggested organizational changes in hospitals and emergency rooms can improve patient care and reduce medical malpractice costs. The insurer also noted, "While diagnosis-related missteps are often attributed to cognitive error on the part of the physician, the group identified communication problems and information gaps as present in many of the malpractice cases."