Medical Malpractice

July 22nd, 2015

Back in June of 2013, we published an article detailing a 45-percent decline in the number of medical malpractice case filings statewide. Armed with a few more years’ worth of data, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania corroborates these statistics, indicating that such cases are at …

June 10th, 2015

WNYC’s Freakonomics Radio–named after a book series by journalist Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt–recently ran a two-part series about the American health care system. The first hour (about randomized controlled medical trials) was interesting enough, but its sequel proved highly relevant to subjects this …

March 25th, 2015

Health experts have long pointed to increased transparency as a way of eliminating medical errors and reducing healthcare-associated infections, not to mention making patients aware of potential risks. In the past year, this blog has published two articles about programs aimed at making this goal …

February 11th, 2015

A few months ago we wrote about a program called Leapfrog, whose goal is to assign letter grades to the country’s hospitals in an effort to establish their safety in a quantifiable, easily understandable way. Writing for PennLive, David Wenner reports that the Affordable Care …

January 7th, 2015

Back in October 2012, this blog began covering a fungal meningitis outbreak originating in Massachusetts that eventually killed sixty-four people and injured over 750 more across twenty states. Authorities traced the debilitating outbreak to the New England Compounding Center, a pharmaceutical company that provided personalized …

October 15th, 2014

By now it is common knowledge that there is an outbreak of the infectious disease Ebola in West Africa. Having killed thousands there, the disease has also spread to the United States, where one patient just died (at the time of this writing). Thomas Duncan, …

October 1st, 2014

Over the years, many in the medical profession have pushed for so-called tort reform measures, which would alter the country’s civil justice system so that it is tilted in its favor. Lobbyists have made efforts to limit liability for medical negligence claims. But when it …

September 10th, 2014

It often has been said that hospitals are the most dangerous places for sick people. Hospital acquired infections–also known as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)–present a genuine health risk to patients, leading to prolonged hospitalizations and higher rates of morbidity and mortality. Working from data in a …

August 13th, 2014

Although this blog spends a lot of time detailing medical malpractice cases and the jury awards or settlements that come with them. Forbes contributor Steve Cohen reminded us recently (and accurately) that “Malpractice Lawsuits Aren’t Just About Money.” Besides writing about compensation, many of the …

May 28th, 2014

This blog began covering Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robot in July of 2012, but we have not followed up on the outcomes of lawsuits against the manufacturer since last year. A year ago, we reported on the first case to result in a verdict. The …

May 14th, 2014

In a post published last week, this blog detailed a fledgling platform called Leapfrog, which assigns over 2,000 American hospitals letter grades based upon safety records and patient reviews. The goal of this system is to increase hospital transparency by publicizing and hopefully preventing recurring …

May 6th, 2014

All too often, news about medical safety is relegated to academic journals and other industry publications. So when a mainstream news organization publishes an article stating the sobering fact that medical errors kill about half a million patients every year in the United States (that’s …