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Surgical Malpractice

One of the largest issues on the national agenda is tort reform. The Bush administration has complained about the frivolous lawsuits that have been attributed to the increase in insurance premiums. According to the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer advocacy group, the interesting part of tort reform having such an important presence on the national agenda is that "insurance industry profits are booming, tort filings are declining, only two percent of injured people sue for compensation, punitive damages are rarely awarded, liability insurance costs for businesses are miniscule, medical malpractice insurance and claims are both less than one percent of all health care costs in America, and premium-gouging underwriting practices of the insurance industry have been widely exposed."

Surgical malpractice affects tens of thousands of people every year. The Institute of Medicine has said at least 44,000 and as many as 98,000 Americans die in hospitals every year because of medical errors, in addition to the thousands more injured. The surgical malpractice cases occur for a wide range of reasons, though the system right now will penalize less than 0.5 percent of the nation's doctors with serious state sanctions.

Just five percent of doctors are responsible for 54 percent of malpractice payouts in the U.S. Surgical malpractice has taken and injured so many lives, yet House Republican proposals would further injure victims by shifting more costs onto them. Capping non-economic damages for surgical malpractice and other medical malpractice cases would unfairly punish permanent and significant injuries. A report by the Public Citizen consumer group has found that ten times more claims are dropped than pursued based on the Physician Insurer Association of America figures.

While surgical malpractice can occur because of human error and mistakes, medical attorneys and insurance companies have encouraged doctors for years to admit nothing because of the fear of litigation. In a Wall Street Journal report a new trend is starting to surface in the medical profession that may help ward off malpractice cases like surgical malpractice from being filed. Some medical centers are starting to adopt policies to urge doctors to apologize for surgical errors.

While some people think that this policy seems the obvious answer to taking a first step in fixing a mistake, many doctors are still against admitting any wrongdoing. A patient that suffered a surgical mistake after a doctor left a sponge in his body received an apology from the doctor and decided not to file a surgical malpractice case because he felt they honored him in extending the apology. Over one third of all surgical errors in ambulatory surgery centers and nearly one fifth of all surgical errors in a hospital setting are because the surgeon has performed on the wrong part of the body. With this many preventable surgical malpractice cases, consumer groups and victims of surgical malpractice think legislation that better addresses patient safety will reduce the number of deaths and injuries suffered needlessly.

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More Information on Surgical Malpractice:

Surgical Malpractice

Surgical Mistakes

Surgical Errors

 

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