Medical Malpractice in Your State
limiting patients' rights does not improve care or lower insurance
rates
Reality Check | Medical Malpractice
& Preventable Errors | Victims | Lawsuits
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Georgia
According to the American Medical Association, Georgia is a "crisis"
state.
Reality Check:
Georgia already caps punitive damages.
Insurance Reform is Needed: Despite limits on patients' rights,
Georgia insurers still raised premiums more than 17% in 2004. In fact,
Georgia's largest malpractice insurer, MAG Mutual Insurance Company,
took in nearly triple what it paid out in 2004, according to the company's
annual statement. This gain was in addition to the more than
$17.3 million it gained by investing its doctors' money.
Medical Malpractice & Preventable Errors
Patient Safety Should Come First
Instead of limiting patients' rights, Congress should look to preventing
insurance companies from price-gouging doctors and help implement
processes that will put patient safety first. Fixing the system to
put patient safety first will ultimately bring down costs for everyone.
In Georgia alone, preventable medical errors in hospitals cost $495-$844
million a year, according to the consumer safety and health organization
Public
Citizen.
Nationally, medical errors are a real concern with USA
Today
reporting that medical errors seriously injure 1 in 10 hospitalized
patients.
In fact, the Institute of
Medicine reported as early as 1999 that medical errors are a national
crisis. Yet, those same researchers recently
noted that despite 5 years of calls to action, the medical community
has made little progress in reducing the risk to patients who use
the healthcare system. In particular, researcher Lucian Leape thinks
that the medical community "has deflected attention from saving
patients to saving money." read
more...
Faces of Medical Malpractice
Sherry Keller was left unable to walk because of medical malpractice.
She had received a complete hysterectomy and returned to the doctor
to have her staples removed. In completing the hysterectomy, her surgeon
had relied entirely on the staples to hold her incision closed, and
had not sutured underneath. The staples were removed, but that night
her incision began to ooze blood. The doctor called her back to the
office the next morning. She put Sherry on the examination table and
started to clean the wound. In cleaning it, she pulled on the incision,
which, due to the lack of sutures, opened like a ziplock bag. The
doctor said she would call a wound care specialist and left Sherry
alone, with a large open wound, lying on an examination table and
continued to see other patients while Sherry lay on the examination
table for approximately 35 minutes. Sherry went into shock, lost consciousness,
and fell off the examination table. Her head hit the counter as she
fell, damaging her spinal cord and rendering her a quadriplegic. She
dragged herself into the hall to get help.
The doctor called for an ambulance, but gave express orders that
Sherry should only be transported and not operated upon. The doctor
said that she would go to the emergency room to dress the wound herself.
Sherry then lay in the Emergency Room for two and a half hours waiting
for her doctor to treat her wound. As a result of the fall, Sherry
will never walk again.
Source: American Association for Justice
Read about other victims
of medical malpractice in Georgia.
Number of Personal Injury Lawsuits
There is no litigation explosion. The National Center for State Courts
Recently reported that:
- Tort filings have declined by 5% since 1993. Contract filings,
meanwhile, which are more likely to involve businesses than tort
cases, rose by 21% over the same period.1
- Automobile tort filings, which make up the majority of all tort
claims, have fallen by 5% by 1993 and 14% since their high in 1996.1
- Medical malpractice filings per 100,000 population have fallen
1% since 1998.2
- In 22 of the 30 states that NCSC examined population-adjusted
tort findings declined from 1992 to 2001. The average change in
tort filings across all 30 states was a 15% decrease.1
Sources:
- Examining the Work of State Courts, 2003, National Center for
State Courts (NCSC) 2004
- Medical Malpractice Filings per 100,000 Population in 11 and
17 States, 1993-2002, National Center for State Courts, 2004 (unpublished,
on file with author)
Updated September 2005
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