The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recently released their 2014 Emergency Room Report Card and the grade is not good – the national results were a D+. The study found that, nationally, the emergency care environment had actually gotten worse since the last report card was issued in 2009.

Four of the categories the study measured include:

Access to Emergency Care – The national grade for this category was a D-. There are many issues that emergency care environments cannot seem to overcome, including the amount of time patients have to wait for emergency room care, shortages in on-call specialists and other healthcare workforce members, and the increasing costs for care. Twenty-one states received F’s in this category.

Quality and Safety Patient Environment – This category received a C for its overall grade. The study points out that there have been new systems and protocols introduced to improve life-saving treatment and promote better functioning emergency rooms. Ten states received F’s in this category.

Public Health and Injury Prevention – The overall national grade for this category is a C. There has been no improvement in this section since 2009. It is the one category where states can take the initiatives to be pro-active in implementing programs to help reduce the need for emergency care. An example of this cited by the ACEP would be immunization programs for children and senior citizens. Ten states received F’s in this category.

Disaster Preparedness – This category saw a slight decrease since the last report card and has fallen to a C-. The ACEP contributes this decrease to disparities in each state’s hospital systems when it comes to the capacity of the hospitals and how prepared its personnel are for disasters. Thirteen states received F’s in this category.

If you have suffered permanent disabilities because of a physician’s error or misdiagnosis, you may be entitled to financial compensation for your pain and loss. Contact a Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what legal options you may have.

It can be difficult to determine whether or not you qualify for a medical malpractice suit. Medical malpractice, however, is an epidemic in America—according to the Journal of the American Medical Association and as reported by Forbes, “medical negligence is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.—right behind heart disease and cancer.” While it might be difficult to prove medical malpractice, payouts for these types of suits still totaled over $3 billion in 2012, amounting to one average payout nationwide every 43 minutes. This statistic can be misleading. According to Forbes, “only 15 percent of the personal-injury lawsuits filed annually involve medical-malpractice claims, and more than 80 percent of those lawsuits end with no payment whatsoever to the injured patient or their survivors.”

At its worst, medical malpractice brings to mind tools left in patients’ bodies, or infectious, deadly diseases transmitted because hospital staff forgot to wash hands. Yet the leading cause of medical malpractice is actually much more benign. According to a study out of Johns Hopkins last spring and as reported in the Village Voice, more than 30 percent of all medical malpractice payouts were for misdiagnosis. The lead researcher of the study said in a press release that, “this is more evidence that diagnostic errors could easily be the biggest patient safety and medical malpractice problem in the United States.”

To combat this, in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal, Kaiser Permanente joined forces with the Veterans Administration to promote “system wide initiatives aimed at the most common lapses in the diagnostic process.” The most common instances of misdiagnosis arise from incidents that include (but are not limited to):

• The creation of proper follow-up care plans;
• Failure to obtain complete medical histories;
• Failure to perform physical exams adequately;
• Failure to order the correct type of tests. 

If you suspect that you have been the victim of medical malpractice in Westport, the most important step is to seek the counsel of an attorney. Contact the law office of Richard H. Raphael for a free consultation today.

Proving that an injury that occurred during birth is a result of medical malpractice can be a difficult and frustrating process. If you suspect that your child may have suffered an injury due to doctor or hospital negligence, the most important thing you can do is to contact a medical malpractice lawyer. According to BirthInjury.org, a non-profit that provides support to families who have been affected by a birth injury, states that the most common types of birth injury are brachial plexus injury and cerebral palsy. Birth injuries can refer to either those suffered by the mother or the baby.

The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves that beings at the base of the neck, according to BirthInjury.org. “There are two common systems used to classify or describe different kinds of brachial plexus injuries,” reports BirthInjury.org. “The simplest uses the severity of the injury from least to greatest: (1) stretch, (2) rupture and (3) avulsion.” Many times stretch injuries heal quickly and can often result in a full recovery. Avulsion, conversely, is the most serious type of brachial plexus birth injury and can result in immobility or even lack of growth in a leg. “The only known cause of avulsion injuries is extreme traction (pulling) applied to the brachial plexus,” reports BirthInjury.org.

Cerebral palsy refers to a series of brain injuries that can occur as a result of medical malpractice during the birthing process. “Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive impairment of your child’s motor functions which causes physical disability as your child develops,” BirthInjury.org reports.

According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), in 2006 there were nearly 157,700 birth injuries that occurred to either the mother or baby, which could have been avoided. Injuries were more common for baby boys than girls.

If you or someone you know was affected by a birth injury in Westport, you are likely eligible for compensation. Contact Richard H. Raphael Attorney at Law today.