The median jury verdict in heart attack malpractice lawsuits has been approximately $941,000.
The median jury verdict in heart attack malpractice lawsuits has been approximately $941,000.
You can find a good summary of Maryland medical malpractice law here.
From Friday's Maryland Court of Appeals opinion, Quitty v. Spangler, in which the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the jury's $13 million award in a tragic case of
a boy who was born with severe cerebral palsy, a good summary of the difference between informed consent and medical malpractice in Maryland:
"In a count alleging medical malpractice, a patient asserts that a healthcare provider breached duty to exercise ordinary medical care and skill based upon the standard of care in the profession, see, e.g., Dehn v. Edgecombe, 384 Md. 606, 618, 865 A.2d 603, 610 (2005) Medical malpractice is predicated upon the failure to exercise requisite medical skill and, being tortious in nature, general rules of negligence usually apply in determining liability.") (internal quotations and citations omitted), while in a breach of informed consent count, a patient complains that a healthcare provider breached a duty to obtain effective consent to treatment or procedure by failing to divulge information that would be material to his/her decision about whether to submit to, or to continue with, that treatment or procedure."
In Lockshin v. Semsker, The Maryland Court of Appeals granted cert last week, bypassing the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The big issue? Whether the Montgomery County trial court erred in holding that the cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases does not apply in cases where health claims arbitration was waived.
The New York Times has an editorial this week called "The Cap Doesn't Fit." I don't agree with all of the conclusions in the editorial but it is worth a read.
Colorado now requires doctors to self report medical malpractice claims that have resulted in settlement or plaintiffs' verdict under the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act in 2007. The Act is named for a patient who Skolnik died in June of 2004 after he had surgery done by a doctor who'd been
the subject of a malpractice claim in another state.
Sounds like good new for patients looking to determine whether there are medical malpractice claims against their doctor. But it is up to the doctor to self-report malpractice claims and the Colorado will no auditing their
entries. The risk for Colorado doctors: $5,000 for failure to report each malpractice claim. So doctors who choose to hide something, believing it could be bad for business so they are willing to risk the $5,000,
will have to be caught by a patient, rather than someone from the state of Colorado.
This is progress but we need more progress. This new Colorado law is the right start, it just needs sharper teeth.
If I was an editor of a newspaper, I would ban all editorials that just complain of a problem without offer anything resembling a solution. This editorial in the Denver Post is classic. Just babbling on about the problem, pretending to focus on patients, without offering anything resembling a solution. We need to compensate victims but a fault based system is a bad idea? The cost of compensating everyone who suffers a medical injury would be insane. Justice requires effort. Sorry. Trite platitudes about how the battles over caps are a waste of energy add nothing to the conversation. You have a plan you can defend? Articulate it. Otherwise, save the solution-free speeches.
The Maryland Malpractice Lawyer Blog has a number of links to a few Baltimore Sun editorials that rail against malpractice caps (and, directly and indirectly, Maryland malpractice lawyers). I disagree strongly with these editorials (at least the ones that do not want to raise the malpractice caps in Maryland) but at least they are offering real opinions. This Denver Post editorial is like writing an editorial saying auto accidents are bad. We get this. But offer a solution that you can defend.
Maryland doctors have largely have two targets: Maryland medical malpractice lawyers and insurance companies. With respect to the latter, it made a small step forward last week when the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission came to a compromise with hospital representatives and insurers on
the rates
Earlier this week, hospital representatives, insurers and state officials agreed on a rate increase of 2.12 percent, but the commission decided to drop the rate to a 1.77 percent increase. The Maryland Hospital Association initially asked for an increase of 3.8 percent.
You would think 1.77 percent is no big deal. But it will bring in an additional $230 million for Maryland hospitals.
Ed McMahon from Tonight Show fame, settled his medical malpractice lawsuit against a Los Angeles hospital after breaking his neck, one of his malpractice lawyers told reporters. McMahon sued the hospital claiming that doctors failed to diagnose his broken neck after a fall and discharged him without taking an X-ray. He also accused the hospital of botching two subsequent spine operations.
Any malpractice lawyer will tell you these are tough claims. You need to know the facts of any lawsuit before rendering an opinion - all of the facts. But having said that, celebrities are able to find lawyers to file lawsuits that no one else would consider touching with a ten foot pole.
