When you seek treatment at a hospital, you expect to get better. Unfortunately, many people become sicker in the hospital after acquiring hospital-related infections. Hospital-acquired infections are a problem in Pennsylvania and across the United States. Hospital-acquired infections can result in medical complications, additional recovery time, pain and suffering, increased medical bills, serious injuries and…

It is the scenario no patient ever wants to endure: having an illness or injury, going to the hospital only to have the condition worsen because of a doctor’s mistake. Unfortunately, thousands of patients across the country unwittingly become part of this vicious cycle. Take the case of Ryan and Leah Jeffers, whose two-year-old daughter…

Large medical malpractice payouts (“catastrophic claims”) make up less than 1 percent of all medical payments in the U.S. As lead author Marty Makary notes, the assertion that medical malpractice lawsuits raise health care costs is simply not true. Repeated studies continue to debunk the medical malpractice myths perpetuated by insurance industry lobbyists and some…

Hospitalized patients face many risks in the aftermath of major surgery or during treatment for a severe illness. Medication errors, infection risks, improper charting and failures to respond to patient complaints can lead to immediate complications with tragic consequences. One example of nurse malpractice that has gained recent attention is “alarm fatigue” – failing to…

Refuting Arguments for Tort Reform Tort reform, which is a code phrase for dismantling the civil justice system, has focused in the past decade on limiting the remedies available to victims of medical malpractice by doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. The arguments for doing so are numerous. They are also weak at best…

According to patient safety experts at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the number of preventable patient deaths attributable to misdiagnosis while in intensive care is equal to the number of patients who lose the battle with breast cancer each year. The big difference? One was actually diagnosed and the patient given a chance to…