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Today’s 300th Consecutive Daily Blog Posting For MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Today, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com is proud to celebrate its 300th consecutive daily blog posting. Over the course of 299 postings, we have explored numerous medical malpractice topics, including states’ medical malpractice laws, states’ statistics regarding medical malpractice claims, results of medical malpractice jury verdicts in various states, and relevant and timely medical information useful to our readers.

Our medical malpractice research over the last 10 months has revealed the constant assault on the rights of medical malpractice victims to receive fair and adequate compensation for their losses that has drastically, unfairly, and indiscriminately reduced the compensation received by them for their permanent, painful, and debilitating injuries and losses.

Our blog has examined the well-financed and highly-organized efforts of the health care industry promoting “tort reform” legislation drafted on its behalf by politically-connected, highly-paid lobbyists who employ public fear tactics (for example, telling patients that their doctors will need to give up their medical practices due to too high medical malpractice insurance premiums or preaching the often-recited but rarely-supported mantra about “frivolous” medical malpractice lawsuits) to wage a war that they inappropriately call ”tort reform” (“reform” implies that something was wrong to begin with). Their high-powered tactics are intended to elevate the financial interests of the very few doctors, hospitals, and other medical care providers who fail to provide the medical care that their peers have established as the bare minimum required level of medical care that should have been provided under the circumstances, over the long-established legal and moral rights of the innocent victims of negligence to be fairly and adequately compensated for their injuries and losses caused solely by the wrongdoing of others.

We have tried to bring to light the processes of certain federal agencies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that affect the health of our citizens, such as the federal drug-approval process that can be influenced by political considerations and the financial power held by massive drug manufacturers. We have discussed the objective findings of studies undertaken by independent federal government organizations such as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that were relevant to medical malpractice issues, to help our readers determine for themselves the unbiased, honest information that will help them form their own opinions on medical malpractice issues relevant to their lives.

While our name, MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com, and our website are dedicated to helping the innocent victims of medical malpractice be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in their local area throughout the United States who may be able and willing to investigate their possible medical malpractice claims for them and represent them in their medical malpractice case, if appropriate, we have always provided the source of our information and the link to our source in our blogs so that our readers can read for themselves the original source information.

MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com will continue to seek out and explore interesting and useful medical malpractice information for our future blogs. If you have information or a request for information regarding medical malpractice issues important to you, please contact us with your information or your request so that we can provide the information to our blog readers.

We wish all of you the best of health, happiness, and enjoyment of life for the New Year!

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Drug Shortages Are Getting Even Worse!

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on December 15, 2011 in which it stated that the U.S. Congress should consider requiring drug manufacturers to report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) any changes that could affect their supply of their drugs. The GAO further suggested that the FDA enhance its ability to respond to drug shortages that are getting worse.

The GAO reported that drug shortages have increased each year from 2006 through 2010, with a record number of drug shortages in 2010 and the pace of drug shortages in 2011 that is expected to surpass 2010. There were a total of 1,190 drug shortages reported from January 1, 2001 through June 20, 2011, and 65% of the shortages involved drugs that were in short supply more than once. The average drug shortage lasts more than 9 months (286 days).

More than half of the recent drug shortages have involved critical shortages of generic injectible drugs. Anesthetic drugs, oncology (cancer) drugs, and anti-infective drugs were most often among those drugs in short supply (imagine not being able to obtain the first-choice cancer drug for your cancer simply because there is a shortage of the drug).

During the first six months of 2011, the FDA was able to prevent 50 potential drug shortages when it has been advised by manufacturers and suppliers of the possibility of a shortage. The FDA has been unable to do more to respond to possible drug shortages due, in part, to its lack of authority to require that drug manufacturers report to the FDA actual or potential drug shortages and its lack of authority to prevent or resolve drug shortages. Nonetheless, the FDA shares fault in its response to drug shortages because the FDA does not adequately gather and evaluate information regarding drug shortages that would enable the FDA to monitor the trends in drug shortages or to address the underlying causes of drug shortages. The GAO found that the FDA has failed to provide sufficient resources to manage its responses to drug shortages or to measure and prioritize its responses to drug shortages.

It appears from the GAO’s report that both Congress and the FDA need to step up to the plate, and quickly, so that the FDA has the authority, ability, resources, and mandate to systematically address the various issues involving the on-going and worsening problem of drug shortages in the United States.

Source

We at MedicalMalpracticeLawyers.com usually blog about issues directly related to medical malpractice claims, medical malpractice cases, medical malpractice attorneys, etc., but when we read the GAO’s report about the continuing and worsening drug shortages, we feared that lives are being disrupted or destroyed because of the limited availability or unavailability of critical drugs used in hospitals and by health care providers. A concerted and intensive effort by our governmental authorities to address and resolve the drug shortage problem in the United States before another day passes is necessary for the public to be protected, which is the number one priority of any national government.

If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of a drug issue, wrongful actions (or lack of action) by a negligent health care provider, or a medical malpractice event caused by a medical care provider, you should seek the prompt assistance of a medical malpractice lawyer to answer your questions, investigate your medical malpractice claim, and represent you in your medical malpractice case, if appropriate.

Click here to visit our website so that you can be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your state who may be able to help you. Or call us toll free at 800-295-3959.

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