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Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Shares List of Common Malpractice Events

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers know that most people in our area have heard the words ?medical malpractice.? But unless you have ever fallen victim yourself than there is a good chance you are not familiar with the various forms in which the medical mistakes occur.

The National Quality Forum created an updated list of adverse medical malpractice issues in 2006. The information is culled from adverse medical error summaries, like the comprehensive one issued each year by the state of Minnesota. For example, the most recent list contains serious medical malpractice events as well as examples of nursing home abuse that are easily preventable and have dire consequences. They are divided into general categories and then subdivided by specific type of event.

Examples of errors include:

Surgical/Invasive Procedure Events
1. Surgery performed on wrong body part
2. Surgery performed on the wrong patient
3. Foreign object left in the body after surgery

Case Management Events
1. Medication errors
2. Use of incompatible blood products
3. Failure to diagnose serious medical problem

Environmental Events
1. A serious burn or electric shock
2. Oxygen or gas contamination
3. Bedrail injury or death

Product of Device Events
1. Use of contaminated drugs
2. Malfunction of medical device (like the installation of a DePuy hip implant)
3. Intravascular air embolism

Patient Protection Events
1. Infant discharge to wrong person
2. Patient disappearance
3. Patient suicide

Criminal Events
1. Impersonation of a health care provider
2. Sexual assault of patient
3. Physical assault on patient

Nursing Home Negligence
1. Fall of a resident
2. Development and failure to treat pressure ulcers
3. Resident wandering or elopement
4. Resident suicide
5. Physical abuse between residents or involving staff
6. Sexual abuse by the same
7. Bed rail injuries
8. Failure to timely seek emergency medical care

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).