Posts tagged Medical Malpractice

• Nevada's Mental Health Funding Problems Continue

  Steve Klearman | December 07, 2007 2:45 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  As Nevada's population of those with mental heatlh problems grows, the state has determined that it cannot spend as much as it did previously.According to a Reno Gazette Journal Article dated November 30, 2007, the new Reno triage center may have its budget cut after Governor Jim Gibbons ordered state agencies to submit lists for an 8% budget cut this month. This cut was an increase from an...

• Lymph Node Assessments Skipped in Breast Cancer Cases

  Steve Klearman | December 05, 2007 9:02 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  A startling 11% of those in a 200,000-patient national sample did not receive a lymph node assessment while undergoing surgery for early-stage breast cancer. The recommended practice promotes disease staging and appropriate treatment selection. Garth Sullivan, Esq., at Indox Consulting (415-568-7116) reports that researchers explored the impact of patient race and ethnicity, insurance status,...

• Nearly Half of Doctors Fail to Report Incompent or Unethical Behavior

  Steve Klearman | December 03, 2007 12:51 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  In Nevada, as elsewhere, one has to look out of state to find a medical expert witness to testify. Nevada doctors do not testify against each other. Similarly, I suspect that a review of State Board of Medical Examiners complaints would reveal that the vast majority of such complaints come from patients.It comes as little surprise, therefore, that nearly half of all U.S. doctors fail to report...

• Court Examines Sovereign Immunity Protection for Doctors

  Steve Klearman | December 01, 2007 12:26 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  In Martinez v. Maruszczak, 123 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 43 (October 11, 2007), the Nevada Supreme Court considered " the extent to which sovereign immunity protects publicly employed physicians from common-law liability for medical malpractice."The Court's analysis turned "on Nevada's statutory waiver of sovereign immunity and a statutory exception to that waiver, which immunizes state actors from...

• Health Care Providers Do Not Need to "Line Up" to be Experts

  Steve Klearman | November 30, 2007 12:20 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  In Staccato v. Valley Hospital, 123 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 49 (November 8, 2007), the Nevada Supreme Court resolved the issue of whether a physician is qualified to testify as to the proper standard of care in a malpractice action against a nurse when the allegedly negligent act implicates the physician's realm of expertise. The Court concluded "that a physician or other medical care provider is...

• University Medical Center Does Deal with Cancer Institute

  Steve Klearman | November 28, 2007 12:11 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Las Vegas' University Medical Center would shed some controversy, save $290,000 a year and gain prestige in a new deal with the Nevada Cancer Institute. The hospital would pay the research center $60,000 annually to direct its oncology-hematology department under a three-year contract that's expected to be approved today by Clark County commissioners. Marshall Allen, at the Las Vegas Sun...

• Nevada Hospital Managers Face Theft Charges

  Steve Klearman | November 27, 2007 12:07 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Two managers at Clark County's financially struggling public hospital face criminal charges on accusations of bilking taxpayers out of thousands of dollars by stealing materials and enlisting hospital employees for their personal use, according to court documents. Tony Cook, writing for the Las Vegas Sun yesterday, writes that Christopher Roth, an associate administrator of support services who...

• Pregnant Women Get More Imaging Exams

  Steve Klearman | November 27, 2007 6:16 AM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Pregnant women are receiving more high-tech imaging exams, exposing their babies to higher doses of radiation than a decade ago, a study said on Tuesday. Reuters reports that while the levels of radiation exposure are low, they carry a slight risk of harm to the developing fetus, said study author Elizabeth Lazarus, a professor of diagnostic imaging at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at...

• Judge Uncaps Med Mal Caps

  Steve Klearman | November 25, 2007 3:43 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  It's always nice to see Courts take sane approaches to the insurance industry's ongoing efforts to eliminate medical malpractice as a legal claim in America.In a November 14, 2007 article, the Chicago Tribune notes that the "controversy over limits on medical malpractice awards was ignited again after a Cook County judge on Tuesday struck down a 2-year-old state law that capped compensation to...

• Organ Donor Infected With HIV

  Steve Klearman | November 19, 2007 2:54 PM | 0 CommentsReno, NV Category: Defective & Dangerous Products
  

  A 30-year-old woman was one of four patients infected with HIV and hepatitis after an organ transplant.According to a Yahoo! News Article dated November 16, 2007, the woman was not informed that the donor engaged in high-risk activities and, after the transplant, she was not immediately tested for HIV. These two circumstances put the University of Chicago, where the procedure was done, and the...