Backers of a Nevada bill that would give plaintiffs a 45-day “time cushion” to obtain and file an expert witness affidavit call it an issue of fairness. At a hearing before the state’s Assembly Judiciary Committee, witnesses noted that in some cases, affidavits become separated from lawsuits or cannot be obtained within the 1-year statute….
Continue ReadingHealth Care Reform
George Orwell Comes to Washington: The “Protect Patients Now” Lobbying Group
If you wanted to lobby for a law that wipes out the rights of patients to hold hospitals, drug manufacturers and doctors accountable when they hurt people by carelessness and wrongful conduct, what would you call your group? “Protect Patients Now!” It has a nice ring, doesn’t it? However, the people behind this campaign, which….
Continue Reading“When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail”
Yet more evidence that expensive technology drives treatment decisions in medicine: A new survey of prostate cancer treatment shows that once a hospital invests the $1 million to $2.5 million it takes to get a surgical robot, men in the area start to get a lot more prostate removal surgery than they otherwise would. Although….
Continue ReadingPhysicians wouldn’t order fewer tests under malpractice reform, study finds
One of the main arguments made by proponents of malpractice reform is that physicians would order fewer medical tests if patients could receive only a limited amount of money in a potential lawsuit. But that assumption may not be true, according to a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs. In that study, researchers….
Continue ReadingCritical reception for study claiming malpractice laws chase docs from Illinois
Half of all graduating medical residents or fellows trained in Illinois are leaving the state to practice elsewhere, according to a new study, which seems to indicate that as many as 50% of the state’s medical school graduates are turned off by the “toxic” malpractice environment. Critics, however, say the study is just another attempt….
Continue Reading“The Mammography Wars” and Doctors’ Conflicts of Interest
It was nearly a year ago that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force caused a huge uproar with the mildest imaginable recommendation about mammograms, and now two physician researchers say it might be time to point out that certain emperors are wearing no clothes. In their Sounding Board article in the New England Journal of….
Continue ReadingBaltimore Medical Malpractice Scandal Shows Systemic Problems of Hospital Peer Review
Hundreds of patients appear to have received cardiac stents that they didn’t need from Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Towson, Maryland. So why did no one at the hospital blow the whistle? And why did the patients not realize that Midei was rushing them into unwise and risky surgery? Heart….
Continue ReadingThe Facts about Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform
It’s helpful to look at the actual facts, not supposition, about so-called “tort reform” and medical malpractice, because so many medical leaders persist in arguing that curbing victims’ rights to accountability for medical injuries would make the health care system better. The following discussion is courtesy of Joanne Doroshow, the head of Center for Justice….
Continue ReadingNew Health Care Law Will Expose Drug Manufacturers’ Gifts to Doctors
The free meals, trinkets and other goodies now lavished on doctors by the prescription drug industry will soon be a matter of public record for each doctor in the United States, under a provision of the new health care reform law. A searchable database goes into effect in 2013 that will let anyone plug in….
Continue ReadingCan a Nurse Go to Prison for Reporting a Doctor for Malpractice?
That question is now on trial in a small west Texas town, where a nurse stands accused of a felony for reporting a doctor whom she thought was guilty of malpractice on patients. Even if the nurse is acquitted, the case could have a chilling effect on nurses’ willingness to act as whistle blowers when….
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