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Lawsuits decrease when Preventable Medical Errors decrease

By Beth Janicek

A new study in HealthDay News shows statistics that support something malpractice lawyers have been saying for years: if preventable injuries in hospitals decrease, malpractice lawsuits will decrease too.

The study surveyed California hospitals from 2001 to 2005, and found that there is "a significant association between the annual number of safety lapses that put patients at risk in each county and the number of malpractice claims". According to the article:

"These findings suggest that putting a greater focus on improving safety performance in health care settings could benefit medical providers as well as patients," lead author Michael Greenberg, a behavioral scientist at the Rand Corporation, said in a news release. Rand is a nonprofit research organization. The study was released April 15 on the group's Web site.

The researchers analyzed 2001-05 data and found that there were about 365,000 adverse events among patients, such as post-surgical problems and hospital-acquired infections, and about 27,000 malpractice suits in California during that time.

If the results in this study are accurate- and we have no reason to believe that they're not- then they are very strong evidence against the claim that most malpractice lawsuits are frivolous and are filed by people who just want to get rich quick off of innocent doctors.

If such assertions were true, then the amount of preventable injuries caused by hospitals should have no effect on the number of malpractice lawsuits, since people would be suing regardless of the legitimacy of their claims. But since the number of malpractice lawsuits decreases when the number of preventable injuries decreases, it only makes sense that malpractice lawsuits are filed because of preventable injuries.

Opponents of malpractice lawyers have always tried to claim that we do what we do just for the money, but the facts are on our side. The vast majority of malpractice lawyers are honest, and want to help other people who have been abused by a system that they could not control. The vast majority of people who file malpractice lawsuits are people who have been injured or harmed by others, and who can't afford to (and shouldn't have to) fix the errors of others. As more and more studies like this one come to light, I believe that more people will realize the truth.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on April 19, 2010 (boomark / email).