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Catheter-associated blood stream infections are preventable. The CDC has published guidelines for health care providers to follow to avoid such infections. These guidelines include basic safety measures including washing hands with soap and using sterile gloves when inserting the catheter. Failure to follow these safety measures can result in serious injury or death to the patient.
Claims based on hospital inquired infections are on the rise. Recent jury verdicts suggest that more lawsuits will be filed. On November 6, 2008, a jury awarded $13.5 million to a Massachusetts woman who died of an infection caused by flesh-eating bacetria she acquired during cancer treatment at the hospital. On November 14, 2008, a Utah woman reached a confidential settlement in medical malpractice she filed against a hospital after the hospital failed to detect a flesh-eating bacteria resulting in the loss of limbs. In July, a couple in Missouri was awarded $2.58 million after the husband contracted Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) when doctors at the hospital inserted a pacemaker. As a result of the deadly MRSA, the man lost a kidney, a leg and a foot. According to the CDC, 2 million patients acquire infections while at the hospital per year resulting in 90,000 deaths. In the past, hospitals were successful in arguing that the vast majority of the infections were unpreventable. This argument is no longer holding water. The standard of care has been raised requiring hospitals to take appropriate measures to prevent infections. Last year, the CDC published guidelines for preventing infections. As of October 1, 2008, Medicare stopped reimbursing for certain type of hospital acquired infections. Hopefully, by having the hospitals held accountable, the rate of deadly hospital infections will decline.
In Washington D.C., a 39 year old man while at his home is suffering from shortness of breath and chest pains. His family per his instructions call for an ambulance. The EMS crew arrives and concludes that he has acid reflux and recommends that he take pepto bismol. Hours later, the man is found dead in his home from a heart attack. View the video of this tragic story and the obvious medical malpractice.
Hospital acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph infection) infects about 880,000 patients a year and accounts for about 8% of all hospital infections. Hospital infections caused by all kinds of bacteria infects millions of patients per year. Nearly all of these infections are now preventable. They are preventable when doctors and the hospital staff clean their hands, rigorously practice proper hygiene and implement other preventive measures. For example, central line bloodstream infections should no longer occur. These infections take place when a device is inserted into the patient such as a tube in a vein. If the person inserting the tube has not properly washed his hands or the insertion site has not been properly cleaned, bacteria can enter the bloodstream.
Certain hospitals have taken the necessary steps to sharply reduce infection rates. However, a recent survey performed by Leapfrog (a patient-safety organization) found that 87% of hospitals fail to consistently practice infection prevention measures. This is unacceptable and Medicare agrees. Starting in October 2008, Medicare will stop reimbursing hospitals for treatment of certain device related bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections and surgical infections. Why? because Medicare has determined, and correctly so, that these infections should not bee happening and when they do happen, it is the result of the negligence on the part of the hospital.
We have been seeing and experiencing in our own medical and dental malpractice cases a disturbing trend. Defendants are filing Motions to Dismiss malpractice lawsuits on the ground that the written opinion attached to the lawsuit does not comply with General Statutes Section 52-190a. The statute requires that a plaintiff in filing a medical or dental malpractice lawsuit must attach to the lawsuit a copy of a written opinion authored by a similar health care provider stating that malpractice occured and as a result of the malpractice the plaintiff suffered injuries. The identifying information of the author of the report is redcated when attached to the lawsuit.
Nothwithstanding the fact that Section 52-190a does not require that the author of the written opinion broadcast that he or she is a similar health care provider, defendants are routinely injecting such a requirement into the statue and using it as the basis for a Motion to Dismiss. The case law is virtually unanimous in holding that the statute has no such requirement, thus the lawsuit cannot be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
In one of our pending dental malpractice cases, the Court just rejected defendant’s argument that the written opinion was defective due to the fact that it did not state that the author of the opinion was a similar health care provider. The motion to dismiss was denied.