Medical Malpractice Hurts Everyone

Medical malpractice hurts everyone.  Often it is difficult to see that this is happening.  Often it appears that only the patient and the patient’s family are harmed by medical mistakes.  We often fail to see or appreciate how far the ripples spread.

People injured by medical mistakes usually have longer hospital stays and additional medical treatment which would not have been necessary but for the malpractice.  The cost of these longer stays and additional treatment have to be paid by someone.  If the patient has health insurance or Medicare, most of the costs are spread among the other insureds or among the taxpayers.  If the patient has no insurance, the hospital and doctors end up eating the bill and passing on the cost to their other patients.

People injured by medical mistakes often miss time from work and in some cases are permanently disabled or die from the medical mistakes.  There is a substantial loss of productivity in this country caused by medical mistakes.

People who are injured as the result of medical mistakes, whether permanently or only temporarily, may not earn what they did before they were injured.  This will usually result in a decrease in the taxes they pay.  They may lose their homes or be forced into bankruptcy by medical bills resulting from medical negligence.

People who are disabled as the result of medical mistakes may make claims against their own disability insurance or against Social Security for disability payments.

The bottom line is that medical mistakes cost all of us whether we recognize it or not.

On rare occasions, however, the damage to all of us is obvious.  Such an occasion occurred last month.  A clearly ill man who had just returned from a part of Africa where the Ebola virus was widespread went to a Dallas emergency room for treatment.  He had a fever, abdominal pain, nausea and dizziness.  Despite his obvious illness and his history of travel in Ebola ravaged West Africa, he was sent home without anyone at the hospital considering, even for a moment, that he might have Ebola.  As a result, many people were exposed to the virus and this patient was left to become even more ill before he returned to the hospital three days later and the Ebola recognized.  It is an open question whether, had Ebola been considered on his first visit, the life of the patient could have been saved.  There is no question, however, that many people may become sick and die because of the failure of the emergency department doctors to consider the possibility of Ebola.  There is also no question that huge amounts of money will have to be spent because of this failure.  On top of all this, it appears this emergency department has a history of not meeting appropriate standards.

Medical mistakes kill almost 400,000 people each year in the United States.  Even if no one in your family is a direct victim of a medical mistake, we all pay in one way or another.

 

Posted in Doctors, Health Care Costs, Hospital Negligence, Hospitals, Malpractice costs, Medical Costs, Medical Malpractice, medical mistakes, Medical Negligence |