Health Care Practitioners

In a recent review of common mistakes made by health care practitioners, one state (Washington) found there was likely a significantly underreporting issue involving cases of pharmaceutical and medical errors. It is likely Washington State is not the only state in the nation that has an underreporting problem. In fact, nationwide the Institute of Medicine estimates medication errors injure 1.5 million people nationwide every year. In hospitals alone, the Institute found in 2006 there were 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries. This is clearly an epidemic!
In a time when it is deemed by some to be a political advantage to advocate for medical malpractice caps and statutory limitations, there is no evidence, study or proof of any sort to indicate there is a trend of decreasing medical errors that would justify some truly inequitable “reform” remedies such as caps on damages suffered by those who are the victims of malpractice. Those who live in states that have imposed caps on medical malpractice damages, and who are also victims of medical malpractice, can attest to the gross miscarriage of justice suffered under the arbitrary limitations. Legislators across our nation should ask for concrete facts before supporting “medical malpractice reform.”