Medical malpractice:
a major threat to the health of U.S. citizens

According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, over 225,000 people die each year due to iatrogenic causes (Doctor created problems) typically referred to as "Medical Malpractice." Medical Malpractice is now the third leading cause of death in the United States, after deaths from heart disease and cancer. It is equivalent to more than one 747 plane full of passengers crashing every day of the year. These deaths include:

• 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery
• 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals
• 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals
• 106,000 deaths/year from adverse effects of medication

What constitutes medical malpractice?

Medical Malpractice is the failure of medical professionals to provide adequate treatment to patients resulting in a personal injury or loss of life.

Common Questions

Why hire DeShaw Trial Lawyers for your case?

Medical Malpractice is a doctor's failure to exercise the degree of care and skill that a physician or surgeon of the same medical specialty would use under similar circumstances. When medical standards ("standards of care") are not followed, it is also known as medical malpractice or professional negligence. A trial lawyer that knows about medical problems & medical procedures is needed to help a claim reach the courts fully researched and prepared for jury trial. As former doctor, Dr. DeShaw has over 4000 hours of doctorate level training in diagnosis, anatomy, radiology and other subjects of health care, years of practice as doctors, and a solid understanding of physician standards of care. When additional medical specialist review is required on a case, we hire experts to fully research your malpractice issue. When you hire DeShaw Trial Lawyers, you can concentrate on recovering from your injuries or starting over with your live after the loss of a loved one, while we put our medical and legal experience to work on your legal case.

Have I waived my rights because I signed a consent form?

A consent form does not give the health care provider a license to commit malpractice. While the execution of a typical consent form indicates acknowledgment of stated risks and complications associated with a given treatment or procedure, it does not relieve the health care provider from his or her duty of meeting the standard of care associated with such treatment or procedure.

What is the first step DeShaw Trial Lawyers would do in pursuing a medical malpractice claim?

The first step in pursuing a medical malpractice case is interviewing you to obtain a proper history of the events. At DeShaw Trial Lawyers, such an interview takes place personally with one of our Doctor / Lawyers, not a staff member. This interview is free, regardless of whether you choose to use our firm, or we decide not to accept your case. If we believe your claim has merit, we then turn to obtaining and reviewing medical records and other pertinent information. If it is determined that you have a good case, the next step is usually to give written notice of the claim to the individuals or entities that are believed to have committed the medical malpractice.

What type of medical malpractice claims do DeShaw Trial Lawyers accept?

DeShaw Trial Lawyers is a boutique law firm which concentrates its efforts on a small number of large cases. We accept a limited number of cases to ensure the best level of representation for each of our clients. The cases we select are cases which we believe require the specialized knowledge of our doctor / lawyers. As a result, our firm typically only accepts cases where severe permanent injuries or death result from medical malpractice.

Our beliefs on medical malpractice as a former doctor:
We believe that doctors should not be sued for acts that are not malpractice. But, the controversy presently created between the medical and legal professions in the media is not real. Multiple studies have now proven that there is no correlation between the stratospheric rise in medical malpractice premiums and malpractice lawsuits. Instead, these studies point to the cause of these insurance increases, as the insurance industry itself. Some insurers have gone so far as stating that even if malpractice caps are legalized, they will not decrease malpractice rates.

Medical Malpractice lawsuits are a necessary deterrent to keep doctors diligent in an effort to minimize the unnecessary loss of human life and health. Every human life is valuable, and every person in society, most importantly doctors, must keep that in mind.

More medical malpractice facts

1. Fewer than one-half of 1% of the nation's doctors face any serious state sanctions each year. Only 2,696 serious disciplinary actions were taken by state medical boards took in 1999; nothing compared to the volume of injuries and deaths of patients caused by negligence of doctors. A recent study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that as many as 98,000 patients may be killed each year in hospitals alone as a result of medical errors.
2. Harvard researchers found that 1% of a representative sample of patients treated in New York state hospitals in 1984 were injured, and one-quarter of those died, because of medical negligence. Nationwide, that would have translated into 234,000 injuries and 80,000 deaths in 1988 from negligence in American hospitals. Most of this involves physicians. There is no clear evidence that there has been significant improvement since then.
3. A similar study conducted in California in 1974 found that 0.8% of hospital patients had either been injured by negligence in the hospital or had been hospitalized because of negligent care. Extrapolation of those findings would have yielded an estimate of 249,000 injuries and deaths from negligent medical practice in 1988.
4. In 1976 the HEW Malpractice Commission estimated similarly that one-half of 1% of all patients entering hospitals are injured there due to negligence. That estimate would have indicated 156,000 injuries and deaths resulting from doctor negligence in 1988.
5. Expanding these estimates to include general medical practice outside of a hospital, the potential abuse by physicians is even greater. An in-depth interview with 53 family physicians revealed that 47% of the doctors recalled a case in which the patient died due to physician error. Only four of the total reported errors led to malpractice suits, and none of these errors resulted in an action by a peer review organization.
6. Medical students at SUNY-Buffalo were asked to recall incidents during their clinical training that raised ethical concerns. More than 200 students responded (40% of total sample); the majority of instances they reported (60%) did not in the researchers' opinions threaten the patient's life, health or welfare. This, however, implies that potentially 40% did.
7. Sexual abuse of, or sexual misconduct with, a patient, is also a serious issue. Six to ten percent of psychiatrists surveyed confessed to having engaged in sexual contact with a patient in a longitudinal study.
8. Two studies surveyed medical residents to determine the incidence of substance use. Recent alcohol use was extremely high in both groups (87% within the last year for emergency medicine residents; 74% within the past 30 days for surgery residents). Additional findings proved extremely disturbing; although the emergency medicine program directors accurately determined the incidence of alcohol use amongst residents, they dramatically underestimated the percent who were actually impaired by the substance as indicated by diagnostic tests (1% estimate impaired vs. 13% diagnosed.)
9. Just 5.1 percent of doctors account for 54.2 percent of the malpractice payouts, according to data from the National Practitioner Data Bank. Of the 35,000 doctors who have had two or more malpractice payouts since 1990, only 7.6 percent of them have been disciplined. And only 13 percent of doctors with five medical malpractice payouts have been disciplined.
10. Between 44,000 and 98,000 people die in hospitals annually each year due to preventable medical errors, the Institute of Medicine found. A survey of doctors and other adults released in December in the New England Journal of Medicine found that more than a third of the doctors said they or their family members had experienced medical errors, most leading to serious health consequences. The cost to society in terms of disability and health care costs, lost income, lost household production and the personal costs of care are estimated to be between $17 billion and $29 billion. In contrast, the medical liability system costs $6.7 billion annually, about what is spent on dog food each year.

Industry trends: fewer medical malpractice claims

There is no growth in the number of new medical malpractice claims. According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the number of new medical malpractice claims declined by about four percent between 1995 and 2000. There were 90,212 claims filed in 1995; 84,741 in 1996; 85,613 in 1997; 86,211 in 1998; 89,311 in 1999; and 86,480 in 2000. While medical costs have increased by 113 percent since 1987, the amount spent on medical malpractice insurance has increased by just 52 percent over that time.

Insurance companies are raising rates because of poor returns on their investments, not because of increased litigation or jury awards, according to J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America. Recent premiums were artificially low.

Malpractice insurance costs amount to only 3.2 percent of the average physician's revenues. Few medical errors ever result in legal claims. Only one malpractice claim is made for every 7.6 hospital injuries, according to a Harvard study. Further, plaintiffs drop 10 times more claims than they pursue, according to Physician Insurer Association of America data.

How can I get help?

For more information, please contact us or call our office at 866.THE.FIRM (866.843.3476) for a free consultation.