Kaiser Health News is reporting on a new Medicare program that tracks the results of hip and knee replacement surgeries. Medicare has released the names of the 97 best and the 95 worst hospitals to have these procedures at.

Over 500,000 Medicare patients have either hip or knee replacement surgeries each year. In 2010 alone, between Medicate patients and those with private health insurance, more than 332,000 patients had hip replacement surgery (costing $8 billion) and 700,000 patients had knee replacement surgery (costing $12 billion).

The tracking system looked at operations performed from June 2009 through July 2012. It looked at how often patients were readmitted within a month after replacement surgery. Serious complications from the surgery, like infections, blood clots, problems with the replacement joint or death, were also tracked. An average was determined by Medicare, and most hospitals fell in that average. Two hospitals from Connecticut fell on that list, with one falling into the best category and one falling into the worst category.

Several of the hospitals that fell in the worst list complained about the procedure that was used to determine these results. They said that the results were outdated given the time-frame that Medicare used to track results. New technologies and new treatment models were two examples of how treatments have improved over the past year or two.

Medicare is going to add the results of this tracking as part of its formula when deciding to penalize hospitals. After conducting a similar tracking on readmission rates for patients with heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia, the federal agency has already penalized more than 2000 hospitals nationwide by paying those hospitals less. Once these new figures are factored in, a hospital could lose as much as 3 percent per patient stay.

If you’ve had side-effects or injuries from joint replacement surgery, contact an experienced Westport medical malpractice attorney today to find out what compensation you may be entitled to for pain and loss.

A study by John Hopkins University reveals that the most common error made by physicians is misdiagnosis, which often leads to permanent disability or even death. The study also found that misdiagnosis is also the number one reason for malpractice claims, accounting for 35 percent of those claims. Between 1986 and 2011, there was almost $39 billion paid out to patients and their families for physician misdiagnosis.

The medical community, realizing that most of these errors are preventable, is focusing on fixing the reasons those errors occur.  Computers and automation are a big component of ensuring misdiagnoses doesn’t occur. Having computers automatically analyze medical records searching for possible oversights or other mistakes by doctors is one way. Alerting doctors to make sure they follow up on questionable lab results is another way automation can help alleviate these errors.

There is also a different trend in the way doctors are being trained. Instead of deciding on just one diagnosis for a presented set of symptoms, they are now being trained to not be so quick to put a definite label on  symptoms and to keep an open-mind, even as treatment is occurring. The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine is in the process of developing a curriculum for medical schools that will help physicians in training develop their diagnostic skills. It will also help reveal to the schools whether these future doctors are competent in their field.

It is hoped that the new health care law will also curb physician misdiagnosis since the law requires all of a patient’s medical providers to coordinate his or her care.

Other solutions include running automatic queries of patient records that meet certain criteria (i.e. abnormal blood tests), utilizing electronic decision-support programs to help with diagnosis, new and improved testing apparatus and also stressing the importance of doctor/patient communication.

If you’ve suffered permanent disabilities because of a doctor’s misdiagnosis, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a Westport medical malpractice attorney to find out what legal options you may have.

The past year was a big one regarding medical malpractice law and lawsuits. At the beginning of the year in Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn “quietly signed a law allowing [medical malpractice attorneys] to collect higher fees,” according the Chicago Tribune, a practice that supporters say aims to protect victims of medical malpractice. Rather than Illinois attorneys being able to take sometimes up to 50 percent of their clients’ award, “the law is aimed at setting a standardized rate of pay,” the Tribune reports. While no such law has been passed in Connecticut yet—Connecticut is still one of the 15 states that “establishes a specific limit or sliding scale on contingency fees attorneys may charge clients,” according to the Connecticut State government—there were other changes made to medical malpractice procedure in the state this year.

In April, according to the Connecticut Mirror, the Connecticut State Judiciary Committee heard testimony “on a proposed change to how cases against physicians come to court.” Attorneys who were pro-change explained that unless the doctor was specifically described in state law, many legitimate cases of medical malpractice were being thrown out in court. “Since 2005,” the Connecticut Mirror reports, “a patient wanting to claim damages from a doctor for alleged negligence must have his or her case reviewed by a similar health care provider.”

According to the Connecticut Post, the legislation that “would change who could write the opinions from “similar” health care providers to “qualified” health care providers.” Several physicians and hospital officials, including the American Medical Association, “submitted testimony against the legislation,” the Post reports, “saying it would undo the 2005 reform that curbed the skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates.” After the 2005 law was passed that required this type of opinion, “the number of medical malpractice cases filed in the state has dropped about 20 percent,” according to the Post.

If you believe you have been the victim of medical malpractice in Connecticut, the most important first step you can take is to contact an experienced malpractice attorney. Don’t go through it alone. Contact Richard R. Raphael today.