Medical Negligence News and Research

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Crash course: Injured patients who sign ‘letters of protection’ may face huge medical bills and risks

Jean Louis-Charles couldn't afford spine surgery to ease nagging neck and back pain after a car crash. So he signed a document, promising to pay the bill with money he hoped to get from a lawsuit against the driver who caused the collision.

21 Dec 2021

In California, doctors accused of sexual misconduct often get second chances

The doctor instructed his patient to stand in front of him. He cupped her crotch and inserted his fingers into her vagina through her clothes, moving his hand repeatedly to her rectal area. Then he squeezed her breasts, according to a formal accusation filed by the Medical Board of California.

14 Dec 2018

House seeks to cap malpractice awards as part of health care update

Last week, a jury awarded a Pennsylvania man $620,000 for pain and suffering in a medical malpractice lawsuit he filed against a surgeon who mistakenly removed his healthy testicle, leaving the painful, atrophied one intact.

27 Jun 2017

Health care education researchers call for more research funding to support medical training

Health care education researchers, led by Dr. Julian Archer from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, have penned a heartfelt editorial in The BMJ calling for more research funding to support the evidence base for medical training.

1 Jul 2015

Old patterns of patient safety and medical negligence still repeated in modern welfare system

Representatives from over 20 different healthcare organisations will be convening at the University of Leicester on 11 June to discuss how old patterns of patient safety and historical complaints against doctors are still being replicated in the modern welfare system - and what lessons can be learned by looking to our medical past.

8 Jun 2015

Longer looks: AIDS epidemic in the U.S.; how public health and the recession connect

I pull out my phone and check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which tells me that, in the United States, 636,000 people have died since the epidemic began. That's 23 times higher than Germany, for a country with four times the population. This makes no sense. Germany has big cities, it has gay men and sex workers and drug users, it has all the same temptations for them to be uncareful that the United States does. How could so many fewer people have died? (Michael Hobbes, 5/12).

16 May 2014

ACP calls for testing innovative liability reforms to break through political impasse

The American College of Physicians today released a policy paper on the medical liability crisis, which continues to have a profound effect on the medical system. "Medical Liability Reform-Innovative Solutions for a New Health Care System" provides an update of the medical liability landscape, state-based activity on medical liability reform, and summarizes traditional and newer reform proposals and their ability to affect system efficiency and encourage patient safety.

11 Apr 2014

Consumer advocates, families harmed by dangerous doctors consider amending patient safety ballot measure

The California Medical Association blocked another bill aimed at improving patient safety yesterday, prompting consumer advocates and families harmed by dangerous doctors to consider amending a pending patient safety ballot measure to include those reforms the legislature fails to enact this year.

12 Sep 2013

State highlights: Calif. bill would fine big employers with employees on Medi-Cal; Abortion fight set in N.Y. Senate

For years, politicians and labor unions have pilloried Wal-Mart and other large employers for paying workers so little that many qualify for government health insurance at taxpayers' expense. Now critics fear the public will get stuck with an even bigger tab as California and other states expand Medicaid as part of the federal health care law.

4 Jun 2013

Highlights: Minn. Democrats propose cuts to health services; Cost of dental insurance for kids in Md. may rise

A selection of health policy stories from Minnesota, Maryland, Louisiana, Colorado, Nebraska and Florida.

24 Mar 2013

Roundup: Fla. judge rules legislature must decide on prison care privatization; Skepticism over Ore. medical liability reform proposal

A Tallahassee judge ruled Tuesday that a legislative committee did not have the authority to approve a contract regarding prison health care services. According to Businessweek, the plan would privatize health care services in three of Florida's four prison system regions. Circuit Judge John Cooper, who made the decision, said the policy changes must be approved by the full Legislature, rather than just a panel of 14 select legislators.

6 Dec 2012

Longer looks: Santorum's pro-government record; Electronic health records and lawsuits

If elected president, Santorum vows, he will end the "tyranny" of President Obama's Affordable Care Act. Yet as an up-and-coming congressman in the early 1990s, Santorum took a much different line. Then-;like now-;health care was one of the nation's most divisive issues. In 1993, Republicans were up in arms about a health care reform bill spearheaded by Hillary Clinton and pushed by President Bill Clinton.

9 Mar 2012

Healthy fetus aborted by mistake

The Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne has mounted an investigation into the accidental termination of a healthy 32-week-old fetus.

24 Nov 2011

Metier obtains $9 million verdict against Campbell County Memorial Hospital

Tom Metier of Metier Law Firm, LLC, of Cheyenne, Wyoming and Fort Colllins, Colorado, obtained a $9 million verdict for plaintiffs Louis and Rebecca Prager against Campbell County Memorial Hospital and Brian Cullison, M.D. for medical negligence.

5 Nov 2011

Cosmetic Surgery Code of practice aids informed consent

According to the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery, a just-released study of medical negligence claims between 2002 and 2008 published in the Medical Journal of Australia underlines the importance that codes of practice can play in ensuring that a proper process is observed to obtain informed consent for cosmetic surgical procedures.

19 Sep 2011

Viewpoints: Coburn on his dropout; Malpractice reform and states

For the past several months I have been meeting with a small group of senators from both parties, informally known as the Gang of Six, that was designed to force the idle — not gridlocked — Senate, and then the House and the president, to enact a long-term deficit-reduction package.

20 May 2011

CPF announces $100,000 grants for patient care projects

The Cautious Patient Foundation, the outreach and educational arm of PatientAlwaysFirst, a nonprofit organization committed to educating and empowering patients in the quest for quality health care, today announces a new grants program to support initiatives that successfully move patients towards greater engagement in their personal or family healthcare process.

19 Apr 2011

Malpractice liability limits did not hold down doctors' malpractice premiums in California

Insurance reform, not malpractice liability limits, held down doctors' malpractice premiums in California said Consumer Watchdog today before a Congressional hearing on H.R. 5, a bill modeled on California law that would take away the rights of patients injured by medical negligence. Limits on patient rights failed to lower physicians' malpractice premiums, and therefore health costs, in California.

7 Apr 2011

Medical negligence claims could make patients wary of being treated in hospitals

Solicitors at Goodmans Law believe that the frequency with which medical negligence claims occur and are reported in the media could make patients wary of being treated in hospital.

1 Dec 2010

Hepatitis C from anesthetist case assumes new proportions

According to Victoria’s chief health officer yesterday, another 1,100 people would be screened for hepatitis C that could have come from contact with an infected doctor at more than one clinic.

24 Oct 2010