Shopping for health care services is not something we are accustomed to doing as consumers, at least not in the way we do it with other goods and services. There are multiple reasons for this, including the fact that data pertaining to the quality of health care...
Detroit Medical Malpractice Law Blog
Looking at the causes and costs of cerebral palsy, P.2
In our last post, we began speaking about the various potential causes of cerebral palsy, and particularly situations where progressive jaundice can result in cerebral palsy. Typically, of course, jaundice is manageable enough that high bilirubin can be brought back...
Looking at the causes and costs of cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy, as readers may know, is a condition involving abnormal brain development or damage to the brain which impacts a child’s ability to control his or her muscles. The condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is...
Medical guidelines and the importance of expert testimony
In our last post, we began speaking about medical guidelines and their potential usefulness for holding negligent physicians accountable for harm to their patients. As we noted, medical guidelines can serve as standards of care, but medical guidelines are not all the...
Why medical guidelines are good for patients, but confusing
Medical science, as readers know, is not a perfected body of knowledge that cannot be improved upon. Rather, our knowledge of human biology and how to treat patients is continuing to improve. This is obviously a good thing for patients as the way health care...
Health care system needs better monitoring, prevention of diagnostic errors
According to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, most Americans receive a wrong diagnosis at some point in their lives. Not every case of wrong diagnosis has serious consequences, of course, but in some cases diagnostic errors can have a significant impact....
Suing a physician for errors in provision of free medical care, P.2
In our last post, we began speaking about protections at both the state and federal level which shield volunteer physicians from liability in the event of a mistake that injures a patient. We’ve already mentioned the Federal Volunteer Protection Act, the Federal...
Suing a physician for errors in provision of free medical care, P.1
A recent article in the online journal, Medical Economics, focused on an issue that doesn’t come up too often in discussions of medical malpractice. That issue is the liability of physicians for errors in the course of volunteer work. What kind of liability do...
Report shows VA investigating fewer medical errors even as errors increase
Veterans' Administration hospitals, as readers may have heard, do not have the greatest track record in terms of preventing medical errors. To be sure, medical errors can and do occur from time to time at every hospital, even in the absence of negligence. However,...
Pursuing damages for medical error as a VA patient, P.2
Last time, we began speaking about the Federal Tort Claims Act and the general elements that must be proven in order to successfully pursue such a claim. One important point that needs to be mentioned about the FTCA is that before a claimant actually pursues...