Geoffrey E. Schorr Medical Malpractice Law Blog on Lawyers.com

One topic that has yet to be addressed in the health care reform
debate is medical mistakes.  Recent studies have revealed that
approximately 200,000 people die every year in the United States due to
medical mistakes and infections, and hundreds of thousands more suffer
debilitating injuries.  Yet there has been very little debate about how
to curb this carnage, and there has been little discussion concerning
the annual health care costs associated with medical mistakes.

To demonstrate the tremendous costs of medical mistakes, consider the following which involve two Schorr Law Firm clients:

Case no. 1 - Seven year old child undergoes a "benign" day procedure
at a prominent local hospital for children.  During the procedure,
something goes completely wrong and the child's heart stops on the
operating table and the child is placed on life-support.  After eight
days of life-support and multiple complications, the family decides to
remove the child from life-support, and he dies.  The day procedure
would have likely cost approximately $20,000.  However, because the
child was placed on life-support for eight days, the family's insurance
company was billed more than $600,000.00.

Case no. 2 - Twenty-nine year old first grade teacher suffers a
stroke while teaching.  She is rushed to a local prominent hospital ER
where she unnecessarily waited for an hour and a half before finally
being seen by an emergency room physician.  Her husband, who was with
the young teacher in the ER and witnessed her rapid decline, pleaded
for someone to help his ailing wife but was told that if he didn't calm
down he would be forced to leave.  When the doctor was finally
summoned, it was quickly determined that the young teacher was
suffering a massive stroke caused by a blood clot.  By the time the
doctor arrived, it was too late to administer the clot busting drug tPA
which must be administered within three hours of the onset of
symptoms.  The teacher arrived in the ER only an hour and a half after
the onset of symptoms, but after sitting in the ER for another 90
minutes, there was not enough time to prep her and administer the tPA
drug within the three hour window.

Today, the teacher lives in a nursing home with a feeding tube.  She
will never be able to be independent, is unable to communicate beyond
simple hand gestures, wears diapers that must be changed throughout the
day, cannot bathe herself, etc.  The nuerologist expert hired for her
case states that had she been provided the tPA within the three hour
window, she would have been up to 95% of what she was prior to the
stroke.  He further states that she would have been able to work and
would have been independent.  Instead, she will likely be a nursing
home resident for the remainder of her life, and her life care plan
(what it will likely cost to care for her for the rest of her life) was
an astounding $13,000,000.00.  This is in addition to more than
1,000,000.00 that has already been incurred for medical care following
the ER visit; an ER visit that should have cost approximately $10,000
to $20,000.

If medical mistakes contributed to the death of the child in case
no. 1, then medical mistakes increased the cost of the "benign" day
procedure from roughly $20,000.00 to more than $600,000.00 due to the
eight days of life-support.  Considering that more than 200,000 people
are reported to die nationally each year because of medical mistakes,
these mistakes could cost tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars
each year.

What about the people who are victims of medical mistakes who don't
die from medical mistakes, but who require lifelong care because of the
consequences of medical mistakes?  If medical mistakes were committed
and resulted in the permanent disability described in case no. 2 above,
then medical mistakes are what necessitated $13,000,000.00 of future
health care for the young teacher. If hundreds of thousands of United
States citizens suffer debilitating injuries each year because of
medical mistakes, how much do these mistakes cost?  How much does the
United States spend annually to care for the victims of medical
mistakes?  The number must be staggering and is likely in the hundreds
of billions of dollars.

Health care reform is dominating the news lately.  Politicians and
special interest groups are arguing their positions, and the public
seems to be very split.  Meaningful health care reform should be widely
accepted by the voters, and the politicians should listen to their
constituents.  Because the current legislation is so controversial,
perhaps the brakes need to be tapped and the entire health care matter
revisited with new, meaningful legislation proposed.

It is my strong belief that one area worthy of consideration in the
context of  health care reform is medical mistakes.  If fewer mistakes
are made, fewer dollars will be used to care for the victims of
mistakes.  Very few health care providers get sanctioned by their
licensing boards for committing medical mistakes, and even fewer lose
their licenses.  In order to prevent medical mistakes, one option may
be to limit the ability of those who commit mistakes from continuing
the practice of medicine.  Those health care providers who lack the
competence and/or ability to practice medicine without committing
mistakes should be limited in the procedures they provide, or, in some
instances, removed from the profession altogether.  Without making
medical mistakes part of health care reform, the United States will
continue to lose billions and billions of dollars every year.