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Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding member and senior trial attorney.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that on Thursday, March 31, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “released data…that for the first time show how often patients are injured by certain medical errors in hospitals.” However, “the government did not explain why only eight types of serious, preventable errors were included in the comparison,” while other such errors, like as medication errors, were not included in the study. Th e report does include the following types of medical errors: “air in the bloodstream, falls, bedsores, infusions with the wrong blood type, urinary tract infections, blood infections, uncontrolled blood-sugar levels, and foreign objects left in the body after surgery.”
A review of the study reveals that the medical industry needs to focus on error prevention. Too many people are needlessly injured or killed as a result of preventable medical errors. As the report makes clear, “the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 180,000 Medicare recipients die each year from hospital mistakes. That’s more people than are killed every year in car crashes, or from diabetes or pneumonia.” This trend cannot continue.
We applaud the institutions and doctors who are taking steps to analyze past errors and eliminate preventable medical errors.
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About the author:
Mr. Zambri is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Attorney and Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. He has been acknowledged by Washingtonian magazine as a “Big Gun” and among the “top 1%” of all of the more than 80,000 lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also acknowledged him as “one of Washington’s best–most honest and effective lawyers” who specializes in medical malpractice matters, product liability claims, and serious automobile accident claims. Mr. Zambri was recently (2011 edition) acknowledged as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” by Best Lawyers, and has also been repeatedly named a “Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics magazine (2011)–a national publication that honors the top lawyers in the country.
Mr. Zambri is regularly asked to present seminars to lawyers and doctors, as well as both medical and law students concerning medication errors, medical malpractice litigation, and safety improvements.
If you have any questions about your legal rights, please email Mr. Zambri at [email protected].
