We depend on our Kentucky doctors and hospitals to take good care of us when we’re sick or injured, but sometimes they make mistakes that can hurt the people they’re supposed to be helping. How frequently does medical malpractice occur? Following are some facts that appeared in Medical News Today.
A HealthGrades Patient Safety In Hospitals Study found that:
- Annually, approximately 195,000 patients in the United States die from preventable in-hospital medical errors; and
- Of the 37 million Medicare hospitalizations between 2000 and 2002, about 1.14 million patient-safety incidents occurred.
In the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the University of California in San Francisco stated that the most common violations of professionalism by U.S. doctors are:
- Sexual misconduct; and
- Prescribing to patients without any established clinical relationship.
Researchers from the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered in a 2009 study that “the majority of American doctors will face a malpractice lawsuit at some time during their professional careers.” Most will not likely have to pay damages to a plaintiff, however.
Findings in a study by a Canadian team from St. Michael’s Hospital, as reported in the journal Open Medicine, revealed that 606 Canadian doctors were disciplined by the provincial medical licensing authorities between 2002 and 2009. The most common violations were:
- Sexual misconduct (20 percent);
- Standard of care violations (19 percent); and
- Unprofessional conduct (16 percent).
If someone you love has died or been injured due to a Kentucky medical professional’s negligence or error, contact the Louisville medical malpractice lawyers at Gray and White Law. Call us at 502-210-8942 or toll free at 888-450-4456 and set up a FREE, no-obligation, confidential consultation.