What You need to Prove in Medical Malpractice
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the third leading cause of death in the United States is medical negligence. It falls right behind heart disease and cancer. In 2012, the cost of medical malpractice payouts was more than $3 billion, which was an average of 1 payout every 43 minutes. About 65,000 to 200,000 deaths are caused each year by medical accidents. According to hospital records, 25,000 to 120,000 deaths are a result of medical malpractice or negligence every year.
How to Protect Yourself against Medical Malpractice
According to a Harvard University study, every year, about 95,000 people in the United States are killed by medical malpractice in hospitals. Another 400,000 are victims of medical errors and medical negligence. According to a US government report, it is estimated that about 10% of physicians require discipline that range from supervision to loss of license. However, disciplinary action is taken against only six-tenths of 1%.
Post-Partum Hemorrhage and Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice is one of the most serious problems in the United States, falling behind only cancer and heart disease as the number one cause of death in the country. According to a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article, there are as many as 225,000 deaths caused by medical malpractice every year. These can be divided into different subcategories:
Computer-assisted medication systems not a cure all for errors
When a person checks into a New York hospital, a friend or relative should go along to monitor medications and watch for mistakes. That is the advice from a representative from Leapfrog, a nonprofit organization that rates hospitals on safety. Medical errors, which include medication mistakes, have been identified as the third most common cause of death in the United States.
Wrongful Amputation and Medical Malpractice
According to a 2014 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2012, there were over 29 million, 9.3%, people in the United States with diabetes; 1 in 4 does not know that they have the condition. Of the 29+ million, 21.0 million were diagnosed while 8.1 million were undiagnosed. 1.7 million people over the age of 20 were newly diagnosed with diabetes (this was in 2012).
How to Avoid becoming a Victim of Medical Malpractice
Every year, approximately 440,000 people in the United States are killed every year as a result of hospital, physician, and nurse errors. According to Diederich Healthcare’s 2013 Medical Malpractice Payout Analysis, $3.6 billion was spent in medical malpractice payouts. This accounted for 12,142 total malpractice payouts, which is one every 43 minutes.
Pregnancy Misdiagnosis and Medical Malpractice
In the last few decades, the number of ectopic pregnancies has seen a dramatic increase. According to a 2002 Obstetrics and Gynecology-published study, approximately 40% of pregnancies that are diagnosed as ectopic are later shown to be normal intrauterine pregnancies. In 2014, there were 14 pregnancy-related lawsuits filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Types of Medical Malpractice
According to a recent study, approximately 440,000 people in the United States die as a result of medical negligence every year. For decades, it was estimated by the federal government that about 98,000 people were killed as a result of preventable medical errors each year. As you can see, in reality, the numbers are staggeringly much higher. In 2014, the total payout amount for medical malpractice claims was almost $4 billion.
C-Section Errors and Medical Malpractice
The most common surgical procedure in hospitals in the United States is caesarean sections. The national c-section rate was 32.9% in 2009 and in 2014, it was 32.2%. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, there are significant improvements as the c-section rate tops 10%, but there is no evidence that there will be a continual improvement in health care quality once the rate in a country exceeds 15%.
Medication Errors and Medical Malpractice
Every year, millions of medical errors occur across the United States. There has been a significant increase in the number of people getting treatment for medication errors in recent years – an increase of more than 50%. As per the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, over 1.5 million people across the country became injured or ill due to the side effects of medication or because they were prescribed or took the wrong dose or type of medication in 2008.