Medical Malpractice

• The Malpractice Myth

  Steve Klearman | April 29, 2006 7:12 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  Thanks to Michael Kaplen's braininjury blog for these observations regarding Tom Baker's insightful book on how the insurance industry continues to contribute to a reduction in the quality of health care in America:In a new book entitled, The Medical Malpractice Myth,Tom Baker, Connecticut Mutual Professor of Law and director of the Insurance Center at the University of Connecticut, uses...

• An Epidemic of Hospital Safety Problems?

  Steve Klearman | April 29, 2006 7:06 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  The following is an editorial published on April 20, 2006 in USA Today: "Whose side are they on? The thought of a surgeon taking a scalpel to the wrong limb, organ or patient sends chills down the spine of anyone who has been in a hospital.Eighty-four cases of what's known in the business as "wrong-site surgery" were reported in the USA last year. But that's just the "tip of the iceberg,"...

• Malpractice and The Power of An Apology

  Steve Klearman | April 28, 2006 9:59 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  I sat with a client this morning who reminded me once again of a simple concept that's almost always overlooked by doctors: the concept of accepting responsibility. How many malpractice cases would be averted if a doctor simply accepted responsibility and apologized?Doctors might answer that no cases would be averted. They might say that our legal system has created an atmosphere in which...

• Wrong Site Surgeries Up

  Steve Klearman | April 20, 2006 3:25 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  USA Today reports that 'wrong site' surgeries are on the rise."Despite years of patient-safety efforts, an increasing number of health care facilities have reported mistakenly removing the wrong limbs or organs, slicing into the wrong side of bodies and performing surgery on the wrong patients. 'It's getting worse,' says Dennis O'Leary, who heads the non-profit Joint Commission on Accreditation...

• Lawyers Do Not Sue Doctors

  Steve Klearman | April 20, 2006 8:13 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  I sat in a settlement conference the other day with a district court judge. My clients are three young girls who lost their father after he was prematurely discharged from the hospital with a dangerous cardiac condition and died shortly thereafter. The defendant cardiologist, concerned with his reputation and honor, was upset that he had been sued. The implication was that lawyers (me, in...

• Are Nevada Hospitals Safe at Night?

  Steve Klearman | April 03, 2006 12:00 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  I've long had the idea that it's best not to go to the hospital at night or on weekends. It's clear that in Nevada, like many states, hospital staffing levels differ between day and night, weekend and weekday. If you are seriously ill, I strongly urge you to have a friend or relative stay with you overnight during your hospitalization. While this may be extremely burdensome, or simply...

• Insurance Companies Blame Lawyers for Bad Earnings

  Steve Klearman | March 24, 2006 7:46 AM | 1 CommentReno, NV

  Medical malpractice insurance companies pushed hard on tort reform after they lost money (along with everyone else) in the stock market a few years back.Jordan Margolis, a Chicago personal injury lawyer, recently reported on his blog, that new studies show that we are not in a medical malpractice insurance crisis now.Magolis notes: Just as consumer rights organizations predicted, the so-called...

• When Doctors Are Not Listening

  Steve Klearman | March 24, 2006 7:25 AM | 1 CommentReno, NV

  I like to tell my injury clients that their doctors are the most important witnesses in their cases.When a case is large or complex, I tell my clients that we can hire expert doctors, but treating doctors tend to have greater credibility with a jury since they 1) are not paid to provide opinions (even though most demand payment to testify); and 2) have actual "hands-on" contact with the...

• Nevada Medical Malpractice Premiums Still High

  Steve Klearman | March 22, 2006 12:39 PM | 1 CommentReno, NV

  Who would have thought it? The insurance companies lobbied ferociously and spent millions lying to voters about the necessity of medical malpractice reform (the so-called "Keep Out Doctors in Nevada" initiative), and over a year later, medical malpractice premiums have not gone down in any meaningful way.In a story two weeks ago by the Reno-Gazette Journal and other newspapers, we learned what...

• Nevada Informed Consent May be Implied

  Steve Klearman | March 17, 2006 10:24 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV

  The issue of informed consent frequently arises in the context of medical malpractice cases.I'm used to sitting in depositions in which a medical malpractice defense attorney will hand my client's informed consent over to my client and then proceed with a series of questions intended to confuse. Malpractice victims obviously do not consent to allow a doctor to commit malpractice, but defense...