Talk about an understatement …

I could – and do – tell a lot of stories about this. Over thirty years of working for and against large health care and insurance institutions – and expert witnesses responsible for the education of young doctors in training – makes me appreciate (immensely) professional efforts like this. Health law plays a crucial role […]

Peer Review Privilege is Boken: we’re going to keep chipping away state by state

#QualityFraud A Pennsylvania appellate court’s recent ruling makes clear that a hospital’s internal documents are generally considered fair game for discovery in medical malpractice suits and the onus is on health care providers to prove otherwise, experts said. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1723936?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

Discovery of Hospital Incident Reporting and Peer Review Privilege

I have had cases like the one below with both anonymous and signed reports removed from medical charts. In one case, a doctor met me in a restaurant across the street from the hospital and delivered to me his copy of a report that had been removed from the patient’s chart. I have also been […]

Multiple Factors Are Causing An Increase In American Infant Mortality Rates

Between 2019 and 2020, the all-cause mortality rate for ages 1 to 19 years increased by 10.7%, and it increased by an additional 8.3% between 2020 and 2021 Here is the link to the study: JAMA: The New Crisis of Increasing All-Cause Mortality in US Children and Adolescents

Iatrogenic Injuries

Numerous errors and medicolegal aspects have been identified in diagnosing and treating cardiac tamponade associated with cardiac-related procedures such as valve replacement surgeries, cardiac pacemaker implantation, pericardiocentesis, and other non-cardiac related procedures such as peri-hiatal surgeries. Patients taking anticoagulants or anticancer medications are especially susceptible to developing cardiac tamponade when undergoing surgical procedures, raising the […]

My Dad and I Didn’t Battle The Charles Case With So Many Other Fine Lawyers, Just To See Florida’s Constitution Undone.

Despite our work in Charles versus Baptist, hospital lobbyists keep picking away at the patient safety disclosures voted for by Florida. As noted in a recent news story, the case my office handled established an important precedent (overturning the First DCA in the process). In a key 2017 ruling in a Jacksonville case, the Florida […]

Peer Review (still) doesn’t work

I’ve been writing about how peer review privilege encourages medical error for years now. But it keeps coming up in the news. It’s almost like nobody in charge listens to trial lawyers. lol. The false premise that secrecy encourages patient safety measures at any level of hospital administration is a myth that should not be […]

Dobbs Will Have “Grave Consequences”

According to health care professionals, academics, and Forbes. The American Medical Association wrote in a statement Friday it is “deeply disturbed” by the decision, which it called an “egregious allowance of government intrusion into the medical examination room,” while the California Medical Association said it “undermines decades of progress in health care for pregnant people,” adding it is a […]

Bad Attitude Shuffle (Doctor’s mood increases the chance of medical negligence)

Many of the physicians I come into contact with from the other end of medical malpractice litigation are miserable, haughty, overly defensive, and rude. While a certain amount of that can be attributed to defending oneself in negligence litigation, two points need making: 1) it doesn’t help the doctor, it helps my case; 2) if […]

Hospital Medication Errors Can Be Fatal (And Concealed)

The patient was supposed to get Versed, a sedative intended to calm her before being scanned in a large, MRI-like machine. But Vaught accidentally grabbed vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer, which stopped the patient’s breathing and left her brain-dead before the error was discovered. That was in a prestigious Tennessee hospital. The link is here. I had […]