Study Finds Hospitals HIDE Evidence Of Medical Malpractice To Escape Liability!

A new study released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General found that hospitals across the country are hiding their mistakes in medical malpractice. According to the study, approximately 15,000 Medicare patients die EVERY MONTH in part due to inadequate treatment in hospitals. A lot of these causes happen to by some of the ones I have identified in my recent posts such as foreign objects, failure to diagnose, and just plain negligence. In fact, the report states that only one in seven medical errors that injury Medicare patients is actually reported—ONE IN SEVEN! This is also VERY scary because the study estimated that in just a single month, 130,000 Medicare patients were harmed in some way by medical negligence!

What the inspector general found in the study was that the number of autopsies performed at hospitals has declined significantly! In fact, the percentage of autopsies has dropped from around fifty-percent to now only about five-percent!! FIVE-PERCENT! But why does this matter so much?

Well, some call an autopsy the “ultimate medical audit.” Meaning, that it provides a very clear picture of how the patient died. Commonly in autopsies the most common medical mistake revealed is a failed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. By performing the autopsy, pathologists and medical examiners can get down to the real cause of death to investigate how the patient passed. This obviously is not good for hospitals or doctors, because it creates more liability through wrongful death and medical malpractice actions.

Of course, there could be some other correlative factors are play here. For example, as the economy got worse, hospitals certainly could have been trying to cut back and save money. Performing autopsies is certainly an expensive endeavor and this could have been one way for cash-strapped hospitals to save money. Second, also because of the economy, hospitals might have cut back on those staff members to complete those autopsies, also to save money.

So while there may be some confounding factors of why the decrease in autopsies being performed, the facts are concerning. We need to know why some patients have died in the hospital and we need to know if it was because of a physician or hospital’s negligence.

But what do you think? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or I also welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com. You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.