Medical Malpractice

• Oklahoma Senate Approves Bill Against Frivilous Lawsuit

  Jamie G. Goldstein | February 15, 2007 11:44 AM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  The Senate Committee approved a bill requiring a medical expert certify a medical malpractice case as having merit before the lawsuit is filed. A previous provision in the law was foung unconstitutional this past December. The hopes of the bill is to keep frivilous medical malpractice lawsuits to a minimum. It still however, has to be voted on by the Senate.Other states, including Illinois,...

• Doctors Still Blaming Patients For Their Mishaps

  Jamie G. Goldstein | February 15, 2007 9:37 AM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  A verdict was returned on Wednesday in favor of a Massachusetts patient who was the victim of medical malpractice. The patient's doctor failed to treat him for a burn to his foot. The doctor knew about the burn and even made a note regarding the burn in the patient's chart, but at the end of the day, the doctor still would not admit he failed to take proper care of the patient's burn, which...

• Are Medical Malpractice Awards Really Out Of Control?

  Jamie G. Goldstein | January 26, 2007 4:01 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Politicians and lobbyists are calling for tort reform and implementation of caps in medical malpractice cases because of skyrocketing malpractice insurance for doctors caused by outrageous awards. However, the truth is there is no crisis due to large awards. In fact over a 14 year period from 1991 - 2005, malpractice payments made as the result of judgments and settlements declined 15.4...

• MRSA Infections Increase, Hospitals Not Doing Enough

  Jamie G. Goldstein | January 26, 2007 9:00 AM | 1 CommentChicago, IL

  One of the top infections patients in hospitals die from each year is MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Stayphylococcus Aureus). Even though the infection is becoming more deadly because the bacteria is becoming more resistant to antibiotics, hospitals are not doing enough to combat the infection.MRSA has become resistant to antibiotics because of the overuse of antibiotic medications. The bacteria...

• Fight Over Medical Malpractice Caps in Illinois Heats Up

  Jamie G. Goldstein | January 24, 2007 1:28 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  The fight over whether medical malpractice caps in Illinois are legal has recently heated up as Illinois doctors have brought Theodore Olson aboard. Olson was the solicitor general of the United States from 2001 - 2004. The medical malpractice caps in Illinois limit the amount a person can recover in a lawsuit for non-economic damages. The law was passed in 2005. There have been no cases to...

• Medical Malpractice Suit Could Challenge Illinois Caps

  Jamie G. Goldstein | November 21, 2006 7:38 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Illinois lawyers have filed a suit that will likely challenge the medical malpractice caps on recovery.The lawsuit - filed Monday against a doctor and the Cook County hospital where the girl was delivered in October 2005 - claims the state's caps on non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, unconstitutionally limit what 13-month-old Abigaile LeBron and her family should receive.The...

• Judges Go Back To School For Science Class

  Staff Writer | July 31, 2006 9:36 AM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Judges in several statets are attending a new kind of Medical School, not to become doctors, but to become better judges in complex litigation. A non-profit school in Washington uses doctors and scientists to educate judges so that they can become more familiar with the underlying issues involved in medical malpractice, products liability or intellectual property suits. Since judges are to be...

• How Low Can You Go?

  Staff Writer | July 28, 2006 10:58 AM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Seemingly, the medical profession has lost all sense of reason and ethics in their obsession to blame victims for unreasonably high malpractice premiums. A new website encourages doctors to blacklist patients and plaintiff attorneys who have filed medical malpractice suits. Ironically, plaintiffs whose cases resulted in not guilty verdicts are encouraged to sue their lawyers for professional...

• Drug Errors Injure 1.5 Million Patients

  Staff Writer | July 20, 2006 4:59 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  The Institute of Medicine has reported that 1.5 Million patients each year are injured in hospitals as a result of medication errors. The study revealed the alarming statistic that at least one medical error occurs to each patient every day. The cost for additional medical treatment necessary to address the drug errors averages $5,800 per patient, which totals about $3.5 Billion in increased...

• Who Let the Docs Out?

  Staff Writer | July 11, 2006 3:25 PM | 0 CommentsChicago, IL

  Contrary to the general belief that doctors are leaving the profession, in the past 20 years, the number of doctors per capita increased 50 percent. Unfortunately for patients, most of the new ones settle in areas where the supply is already above average - places like Florida and New York - rather than places which lack doctors, like the rural South. Studies show that more doctors doesn't...