Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog

• Medical malpractice is exposed in China. This underscores that while we have a very serious problem with medical malpractice in the United States, it pales in comparison to many countries. Of course, that fact that we have less medical malpractice in this country, relatively speaking, is not the lens with which we should be looking at our health care system. If the IOM is even close to right, there are just too many avoidable malpractice deaths a year.
• Where is Obama’s head on medical malpractice reform? Honestly, I’m tired of trying to figure it out.
• Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog writes about Rep. Bruce Braley’s view on malpractice caps (he’s opposed)
• Minnesota ranks 50th in malpractice insurance premium costs. Oh, and Minnesota does not have malpractice caps. Instead, they have good doctor. There a plan.
• I simply don’t understand health insurers’ antitrust exemption. I also don’t understand why the Wall Street Journal believes that antitrust laws are unnecessary unless proven otherwise. Didn’t we decide this issue of 100 years ago?
• The Maryland Injury Lawyer has a blog post on University of Maryland Medical System v. Waldt.

I'm interested in the theory articulated here which argues that medical malpractice tort reform is directed at curbing the income of malpractice lawyers.

At the risk of overgeneralizing, Republicans are far more disciplined than Democrats and are far more able to take the long view. So if this is the core motivation, I would not be surprised. In political chess, Republicans have long been two or three moves ahead.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced Monday that more than 200 patients received excessive doses of radiation because of a programming error in a CT scanner. Incredibly, the medical center said affected patients received eight times the normal dosage of radiation and that the error went unnoticed for about 18 months. Exposure to excessive amounts of radiation has been linked to cancer and other health problems.

Exposure to normal dose of radiation to treat or diagnose disease comes with serious health risks to patients that are already vulnerable. So this is awful news but, hopefully, the victims will tolerate this excessive radiation well.

The Maryland Daily Record reports on a defense verdict in a cancer misdiagnosis case in Washington County.

As any Maryland malpractice lawyer will tell you, Washington County is an extremely difficult place to try a medical malpractice case. Not impossible by any stretch but if you have a close call - as this appeared to be - you are going to have a difficult time in any county in Maryland that is comprised of large rural areas.

The Pop Tort has a good post on defensive medicine.

• Defensive medicine and lawsuits (how strong is the connection?)
• Charles Krauthammer's Paradox (love/hate relationship with the Congressional Budget Office estimates on malpractice and defensive medicine.
• Defensive medicine (Justinian Lake gives hard numbers)

• Maybe electronic records are not the cure all.
• The Wall Street Journal supports malpractice tort reform. But how many times and how many different ways do they need to repeat this over again? I get it, I get it. The Journal also hates poor people but they don't feel compelled to repeat it incessantly. So why the ad nauseam on this? (What? They have never actually admitted that? Okay. Whatever.)
• Missouri doctors are paying less in malpractice premiums. Which is good because a lot of these doctors were struggling to make their beach house McMansion payments.
• L.A Times letter to the editor on medical malpractice and workers' compensation.
• The Expert Witness Blog reports on a malpractice trial in progress in Washington.
• More from the L.A. Times on medical malpractice tort reform.

The Judicial Panel on MultiDistrict Litigation (JPML) yesterday approved MDL-2100, In Re: Yasmin and YAZ (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. John Cord's Drug Recall Lawyer Blog provides all of the details. You can find an explanation of what the Yaz MDL means to pending and future Yaz lawsuits here.