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Yes It?s True: Lawsuits, Patients and their Attorneys Make Hospitals Safer

By Joe Consumer

It may seem a bit late for a health insurance reform post-mortem, which for us means relief now that extreme tort restrictions were properly and thankfully left out of the law.  And it would be a bit late - that is, if the issue had actually disappeared.  Fat chance.

When organizations have invested a lot of money and time into finding ways to weaken the civil justice system (and necessarily its role in making hospitals safer), apparently they just don?t go away.  Ergo, just last week, yet another article appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine by a Harvard School of Public Health prof who, sadly, is a paid consultant for a ?tort reform? group pushing "health courts" and other problematic litigation ?alternatives?.  They argue that by ?eliminat[ing] the impetus for most patients or families to sue,? these measures will ?spur institutional learning and safety improvement.?  PUL-EZE!

The resistance of hospitals to make safety improvements - without being forced to do so, at least ? is legendary.  Sometimes, only injured patients who bring suit, and their attorneys, can force these changes.  (Lots of examples here.) 

To wit, last weekend, the family of 32-year-old Diane Rizk McCabe, who bled to death during a botched C-Section, settled their case with the responsible Albany, New York hospital. In settling, the family insisted that the hospital implement significant patient safety improvements.  This included requiring that the hospital buy ?a maternal and neonatal simulator to be used in staff training on the labor and delivery unit and to change procedures on the use of a machine that monitors a patient's vital signs during childbirth.?

The Albany Times Union reported:

McCabe's widowed husband, Joseph McCabe, a Schenectady police officer who did not return to work for more than a year after his wife's death, said in a statement: "The settlement provides non-monetary benefits which will serve as a living memorial of Diane for our children and family. We hope that it will improve the quality of medical care in this area and reduce the likelihood that another family will have to endure the suffering and loss that our family has undergone."

McCabe's children are Louie, 9, and Jenna, 2 1/2.

Joseph McCabe's attorney, John Powers was ready to take the case to trial, which was set for August.

"It was never about the money with the family," Powers said. "It came down to the non-monetary aspects involved with the settlement. They wanted to do something to make certain this doesn't happen to someone else and to create a memorial to Diane for the children as they grow up that they'll know that their mother is being remembered in this way."

Powers said the McCabe family accepted the settlement because they could not have won those non-monetary portions in a trial.

It should not have taken a lawsuit to force these safety changes.  But unfortunately, it did.  And unfortunately, it always will.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on April 07, 2010 (boomark / email).