Yesterday we posted our 5,000th consecutive daily blog. When we first started posting daily blogs in March 2011, Barack Obama was President of the United States; a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu on the Japan Trench causing a tsunami that disabled three nuclear reactors within days; Space Shuttle Discovery made its final landing after 39 flights; “Crazy Girl” single was released by Eli Young Band (ACM Awards Song of the Year 2012, Billboard Song of the Year 2011); The King’s Speech won four Academy awards, including Best Picture; and, countless people had not yet had their lives upended as a result of medical malpractice in the United States.
Why are we so passionate about patient safety, medical malpractice, and protecting the rights of victims of medical malpractice so that they are fairly and fully compensated for the losses and harms they suffered? One reason is that medical malpractice victims often have nobody to speak on their behalf and stand up for them to protect their rights when they have been seriously injured by medical errors through no fault of their own — negligent medical providers have their well-funded and highly-profitable insurance companies to aggressively protect their financial interests, and they have their special interest organizations to collectively lobby state legislatures to pass laws to protect their financial interests at the expense of their medical malpractivce victims. We strive to educate and assist medical malpractice victims throughout the United States on how to protect their rights and interests, and to find local medical malpractice lawyers who may represent them with regard to their medical malpractice claims, if appropriate.
Medical Malpractice Is A Scourge That Does Not Discriminate
According to the Institute of Medicine, preventable medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans every year, and injure an unknown number of others. A 2013 study estimated that between 210,000 to 400,000 people die annually in the United States due to medical error. A 2023 study published in BMJ Quality and Safety, an international peer reviewed journal, found that diagnostic errors in the United States cause nearly 800,000 serious injuries or deaths each year. If the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were to include preventable medical errors as a category, it would be the sixth leading cause of death in America. Source
Caps (Limits) On Damages In Medical Malpractice Cases Do Not Promote Patient Safety
A study from 2019 reported: “We found that caps on noneconomic damages were associated with a decrease in defensive medicine, increase in physician supply, and decrease in health care spending, but had no effect on quality of care.” Source A study from 2022 found that caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits were associated with higher rates of preventable adverse events in hospitals. Source
Why Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms Are Financially Unnecessary
Caps on non-economic damages, collateral source reform, and joint and several liability reform have been found to reduce self-insured premiums by only 1 to 2 percent each, effectively debunking the oft-cited argument of so-called medical malpractice tort reformers that medical malpractice verdicts and settlements are the primary driver of increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums for health care providers. And the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in 2013 that limiting malpractice torts nationwide would reduce total health care spending by only about 0.5 percent. Source
Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms Hurt Patient Safety
“Tort reform statutes are not intended to keep patients safe, prevent harm or improve the quality of care. Tort reform statutes are intended to keep injured people and their families out of court and to fix problems that either don’t exist or have a multifactorial cause. Rather than trying to understand why medical negligence occurs and looking for meaningful solutions, tort reforms sweep injured patients under the rug. They block access to the courts with pre-suit filing requirements that require investments from attorneys working on contingency who may never recoup the money spent, making it too risky for attorneys to investigate and pursue some of these cases, and leaving injured patients with no redress.” Source
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) publically stated in 2013 that limits on torts could make it harder for people to obtain full compensation for injuries caused by medical negligence and that reducing the amount of money that could be collected in the case of a medical injury might cause health care providers to exercise less caution, which could increase the number of medical injuries attributable to malpractice. Source
A study from 2022 concluded: “We find evidence that state adoption of nonecon caps in med mal lawsuits predicts higher rates of preventable adverse patient safety events in hospitals. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first, either for med mal or indeed, in any area of personal injury liability, to find strong evidence consistent with classic tort law deterrence theory: liability for harm induces greater care and relaxing liability leads to less care.” Source
The Center for Justice and Democracy at New York Law School published a Fact Sheet in February 2024 that stated: ““Caps” on compensation in medical malpractice cases harm not just injured patients and their families. They are also wrecking health care for everyone else. New studies by researchers in the field of medical malpractice confirm that “caps” can lead to more medical errors and higher health care costs … Caps on damages, “by lowering the risk of suit for malpractice, also weakens the deterrent effect of risk of suit on physician efforts to avoid malpractice. The best available research suggests imposing caps is associated with a 16% increase in adverse events.” Source
While we take much satisfaction in publishing over 5,000 consecutive daily blogs, we consider our work far from over – as long as there are attacks on the rights of medical malpractice victims throughout the United States to seek and obtain fair and just compensatiion for the harm they suffered through no fault of their own, we intend to keep fighting for medical malpractice victims. As we have stated over 5,000 times in our daily blog postings, turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
If you or a loved one may have been harmed as a result of medical malpractice in the United States, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click on the “Contact Us Now” tab to the right, visit our website, or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical malpractice attorneys in your state who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.