Personal Injury Law

Review of Medical Mistakes Reveals High Cost of Errors

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

The Green Bay Press Gazette published an editorial this weekend concerning the high cost of medical mistakes on local residents, their friends, and family.

After a review of hospital inspection records, reporters discovered that most area hospitals did a good job of keeping patients safe and attempting to save lives whenever patients needed emergency care. However, every time a healthcare provider makes even a single medical mistake, the cause needs to be closely monitored and the victim needs to hold the offender accountable to help ensure that future errors are limited.

The costs of these errors is simply too high.

For example, the report revealed that one woman died only 24 hours after arriving at a local hospital complaining of feeling bloated and weak. Officials later discovered that an employee made many mistakes, including not getting the woman?s x-ray to her doctor is a quick fashion. In another case, doctors at a hospital examined a paraplegic and completely missed the fact that the injured patient had a broken leg. The patient was forced to suffer through the broken bone without treatment.

The editorial concluded with a call to remember that even one error that can be prevented is one too many?especially when it leads to unnecessary deaths.

Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti believe strongly in the continued need for negligent doctors to be held accountable for their medical errors. Our work is not guided by a belief that all doctors provide problematic care. We know that most medical professionals are indispensible experts who save thousands of lives every day. However, there remains a small group of physicians who consistently fall below the standard of care that patients deserve. Because of the high cost of the errors that those negligent physicians make, it is important to ensure that everything is done to ensure that they are not continually made.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email).