Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

According to the Post-Standard, a computer program recently implemented at Crouse Hospital, in Syracuse, New York, uncovered the fact that the hospital’s pulmonary embolism rate is above average. In response to the program, Crouse Hospital formed a team of doctors to review in the program’s findings and formulate a standardized approach to the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary emboli in patients.

A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot, usually originating in the leg, that travels to the lung and blocks an artery (known as a thromboembolism). Common signs and symptoms of a pulmonary embolism include chest pain, difficulty breathing, and heart palpatations. A doctor or hospital may also be able to identify low oxygen saturation, rapid breathing (tachypnea) and a rapid heart rate (tachycardia).

While many pulmonary emboli can be treated with anticoagulant therapy (medicine) such as heparin, the condition can be fatal (especially if undiagnosed).
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Two Syracuse hospitals – Crouse Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center – announced today that they are taking very specific steps to reduce hospital stay complications, which may be due to medical malpractice or hospital negligence, including doctor errors and nurse mistakes. University Hospital and Community General Hospital plan to join the project in June.

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, the steps include implementation of a new computer software program, additional chart labels, cleaning patient rooms with bleach, and other infection reducing measures. The computer program, produced by 3M, enables hospitals to analyze their risk for patient complications and take steps to reduce mistakes, as well as prepare for Medicare’s Recovery Audit Contractor (“RAC”) audits.

Fewer mistakes and better coding save money for hospitals. The recent changes are expected to save Crouse Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center more than $850,000 a year (combined).
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Two weeks ago, the Slocum-Dickson Medical Group filed a lawsuit against St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center for $102,000,000 in damages. The lawsuit does not allege medical malpractice or a failure to diagnose. Rather, it was for damages stemming from what the Slocum-Dickson doctors believe is St. Elizabeth’s wrongful siphoning of cardiac patients away from the Slocum-Dickson physicians.

According to the complaint, St. Elizabeth’s has for more than 10 years failed to refer patients to Slocum-Dickson. Per the Utica-Observer Dispatch, the complaint continues that St. Elizabeth’s has also directed patients away from Slocum-Dickson. One allegation includes St. Elizabeth’s alleged referral of emergency room cardiac patients directly to (and only to) Central New York Cardiology despite a preexisting “hospital without walls” agreement.

How the demand for $102,000,000 was calculated is unknown.
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According to Lori Smith, a physician’s assistant at Lourdes Hospital, a stroke can “affect anyone at any age.” Knowing that strokes happen every day to Southern Tier residents, as well as throughout Upstate and Central New York, Lourdes Hospital (Binghamton, New York) held its first ever Stroke Awareness Day on Saturday. May is Stroke Awareness Month.

While a stroke is the third largest killer of Americans and the number one cause of disability, many strokes are preventable with appropriate and timely medical care, provided a patient suffering from a stroke presents to an emergency room or qualified medical professional. Common signs of a stroke that a doctor or hospital should identify upon presentation include an “earth-shattering” headache (a headache unlike any other), blurred vision, slurred speech, and weakness or paralysis of the arms, legs or face.

The failure to diagnose the signs or symptoms of a stroke is medical malpractice. And there are stroke risk factors that, when joined with symptoms, should prevent misdiagnosis, including: blood pressure, family history, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol and lack of physical activity. Another way to make a stroke diagnosis is by way of a carotid duplex ultrasound. According to the National Stroke Association, as many as 800,000 strokes will occur in 2009 – through conscientious patients and appropriate medical care, as many as 500,000 are preventable.
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In an effort to prevent the spread of infection, which can lead to prolonged recovery, amputation, permanent disability and wrongful death, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, New York, announced yesterday that it was reducing patient visiting hours to 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. In the immediate future, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center will also be screening all hospital visitors for the H1N1 virus (swine flu).

According to the Institution of Medicine, hospital infections affect approximately 1 in every 20 patients, leading to as many as 90,000 deaths each year. Improved infection control practices at Syracuse-area hospitals, such as St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Crouse Hospital, Community General Hospital, and SUNY Upstate Medical University, can reduce the rate of in-hospital (nosocomial) infection by 10-70%. Hand washing alone may reduce infections by 25-50%, although hospital hand-washing compliance rates are, on average, less than 50%.
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Researchers announced today that new cancer diagnoses in Central New York, and around the county, will increase by 45% over the next twenty years to 2,300,000 new cases of cancer per year.

Many of the new cases will be diagnosed in the elderly and minorities. Data suggests a doubling of cancer in non-whites by 2030, to 660,000 cases per year. Cancers expected to increase are liver, stomach and pancreas. These cancers are particularly deadly as they advance quickly and where not diagnosed early, they can be fatal.

At the present time, the Central New York healthcare infrastructure, including cancer treatment centers located within Syracuse, Utica, Cortland, Ithaca, Oswego, Watertown, Auburn and Herkimer, are not equipped to accommodate the surge in cancer diagnoses, especially given the fact that 40% of cancer specialists in Onondaga County, and the greater United States, are over the age of 55. With the expected increase in cancer diagnoses and the apparent shortage of oncologists, the population is at risk for inadequate medical care, including medical malpractice stemming from a complete failure to diagnose cancer, failure to timely diagnose cancer, or failure to properly treat cancer once diagnosed.

Cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation, chemoradiation, radio-ablation, and surgical resection, costs more than $75,000,000,000.00 each year (more than 5% of U.S. spending for all medical care). Cancer remains the number two killer of Americans.
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While the Cortland County Health Department investigates three suspected cases of the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu, reported in Cortland, New York, many concerned Syracuse and Central New York residents are taking steps to protect or isolate themselves from the community at large. One step is to wear a surgical mask.

According to Cynthia Morrow, M.D., the Onondaga County Health Commissioner (Syracuse, New York), there is very limited evidence to support the notion that surgical masks available to the public help prevent the spread of infection within a community.

Surgical masks available to the public are designed to prevent the person who is wearing the mask from spreading the disease to others. They do very little to protect the person wearing the mask from breathing in bacteria or a virus. In addition, most people do not wear surgical masks on the face properly or wear them even after they are wet with saliva which limits their effectiveness according to an infection control practitioner at Crouse Hospital, in Syracuse, New York. Onondaga County doctors and infection control personnel, and officials at the Centers for Disease Control agree that the only way to prevent the spread of infection is for the ill to stay home.
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The North County Telemedicine Project (“Project”) will begin in May of 2009. The Project will enable as many as thirty (30) North Country hospitals and health care facilities to exchange information through fiber-optic cables with hospitals in Onondaga County and Oneida County.

The fiber-optic lines will allow Central New York hospitals to share data in the fields of radiology, cardiology, dermatology and behavioral health, and will enable doctors to have video conferences and video consultations with specialists around the State. Greater connectivity should help the participating hospitals provide better medical care and decrease medical malpractice and hospital negligence. The Project will also assist Central New York and North Country hospitals make the transition to electronic record-keeping.

Participating hospitals and health care facilities include: Canton-Potsdam Hospital (Potsdam, New York) and St. Lawrence County Public Health (Potsdam, New York), DeKalb Clinic (DeKalb Junction, New York), E.J. Noble Hospital (Gouverneur, New York), Antwerp Health Center, Ken Reil Memorial Dental Clinic (Star Lake, New York), Fort Drum Medical Activity Guthrie Ambulatory Clinic, Carthage Area Hospital, and Carthage Veterans Affairs Clinic (West Carthage, New York), Lewis County General Hospital (Lowville, New York), Evans Mills Family Health, River Hospital (Alexandria Bay, New York), Samaritan Family Health Center (Clayton, New York), Cape Vincent Family Health Center, Samaritan Mental Health Clinic (Watertown, New York) Plaza Family Health Center, North Country Children’s Clinic, Samaritan Woman to Woman Clinic, Samaritan Urology Clinic, Samaritan Medical Center, Samaritan Education Office, Jefferson County Public Health, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (Utica, New York), Crouse Hospital (Syracuse, New York), St. Joseph’s Hospital (Syracuse, New York), and Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, New York).
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