Syracuse Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

A study recently published by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School reports a connection between childhood cancer survivors and adult women who fail to timely undergo mammograms, despite an increased risk for cancer.

Per the study, as many as 66% of women age 25 to 39 who were diagnosed with cancer when they were young, and survived, reported that they had not had a screening mammogram in the past two years. As many as 25% of women age 40 and older had not undergone a mammogram in the past two years.

These women should be part of regular screening for cancer as chest radiation for pediatric malignancy increases the risk of breast cancer by 12-20%. Despite the risk, many women are not screened because of medical malpractice – i.e., they do not receive appropriate medical advice from their gynecologist or family practitioner.

Publishers of the study believe that the medical community must take note of “the relatively low uptake of screening mammography in a high-risk population, the importance of clinician recommendation to improve the uptake of screening mammography, and the continuing need to educate clinicians and patients about the risks of breast cancer after chest irradiation in childhood through well-designed education programs.”
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Recently, a team of doctors at a Michigan hospital formed an “I Am Sorry” team to speak to hospital patients and their families after a medical mistake is made by a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. The teams were created to increase transparency, improve upon hospital protocols, increase patient confidence, decrease medical malpractice lawsuits, and lower insurance premiums. The teams stand in stark contrast to the usual “deny and defend” mentality.

While the patient apology program is in place University of Michigan Health System, St. Joseph Mercy Health System, and the Henry Ford Health System, it has not made its way to Central New York hospitals such as Crouse Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Community General Hospital, University Hospital (SUNY Upstate), Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare, or St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center.

Typically, the process works as follows:

1. Patient or family are notified of hospital mistake within 24 hours.
2. Medical quality review team investigates medical error.
3. Apology is issued.
4. Compensation is offered if the mistake caused an injury, or time away from work.
5. Once a lawyer is hired, many hospitals will not share the apology or the cause for the mistake and revert to “deny and defend.”

While this process is good for a hospital’s bottom line, it does not serve the interests of the injured. Much like an insurance company that calls an injured worker the day after an accident and offers a nominal sum to resolve a case forever – without regard for the injured’s future prognosis – it appears that hospital apologies are being used as a vehicle to secure de minimis settlements before a patient has time to digest the full extent of medical malpractice. As many of us are quick to accept an apology, i.e., forgive and forget, legal rights may be prematurely signed away on the heels of a heartfelt confession.

Doctors are human and they make mistakes. However, a medical mistake does not make a doctor a bad doctor, or a bad person. While a confession goes a long way toward restoring faith in the medical community after an error, it cannot bring back a lost loved one, turn back the clock on undiagnosed cancer, or reverse a newborn’s hypoxic brain injury. Where medical mistakes cause permanent disability and financial loss, compensation is the only way to make a patient or family, to the extent possible, whole again.
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Community General Hospital, located in Syracuse, New York, announced today that it will be adding 36 private rooms as part of a $7.6 million expansion of its inpatient orthopedic services department. Community General Hospital, at the recommendation of the Berger Commission, is investing in infrastructure. The decision to construction private rooms is in keeping with the hospital’s efforts to better patient care and improve upon patient safety and comfort.
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Dr. Kimberly Silvers, of Ithaca Dermatology, recently began using a mobile clinic in order to increase the change of diagnosing skin cancer before it spreads. According to Silvers, “we’re just trying to make people aware that they can just have a ten minute exam to check their body and it could save their life.”

Melanoma diagnoses are on the rise. It is the most deadly form of skin cancer. Most common in areas exposed to the sun, signs and symptoms of melanoma include change in the appearance of a mole, or development of an unusual looking growth on the skin. When evaluating a mole, follow the A-B-C-D-E method:

1. Is the mole “A”symmetrical?
2. Does the mole have an irregular “B”order?
3. Has the more changed in “C”olor?
4. Has the “D”iameter of the mole changed?
5. Is the mole “E”volving over time?

If the answer to any of the A-B-C-D-E questions is yes, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends that you speak with a doctor. Melanomas may also be hidden, so it is important that you have your skin periodically checked. Where skin cancer is diagnose early, it can be treated.
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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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