Pleasant Law Blog (Insurance Claims, Medical Misakes, and Nursing Home Claims)

More on the Medical Malpractice Myth: Lawsuits Are Not the Problem -- Preventable Medical Negligence Is

By Thomas Waitt Pleasant, North Carolina Injury, Wrongful Death and Insurance Attorney. I recently read an interesting article in in the Canadian Medical Association Journal online, which discussed the "medical malpractice myth" in America. The article talks about a study from several years ago by the Institute of Medicine of the Academy of Sciences. This landmark study, concluded that 98,000 people die each year due to medical errors. This is more than all automobile/car accidents and workplace accidents in the United States combined. Other sources estimate the number of deaths from medical mistakes at about double that amount (See Healthgrades.com). The Medical Association Journal article also points out the myth that frivilous lawsuits are commonplace against doctors, hospitals, nursees and other healthcare providers. The number of lawsuits against hospitals, doctors and other medical care providers has not only remained flat for a long period of time (15 years), but in many cases has decreased (based on population and economic growth). If you want to know what's costing taxpayers money and clogging the court systems, look to corporate america -- our corporate bohemoths clash in our nation's courts much more frequently than do victims of medical malpractice and their alleged wrongdoers. And, these business disputes are often extremely legally complex problems, requiring judicial resources far exceeding those required to dispose of the average medical or nursing home injury or wrongful death case. This is all very eye opening, and igt appears we have an epidemic of medical mistakes and errors in this country. People should beware as politicians and business groups call for the kind of medical malpractice or "tort" reform here in North Carolina. The jury trial is the critical leveling field for the victims and families of wrongful death and injury, and Americans are too quick to listen to the calls for limiting this right, calls that come from business interests that are not truly aligned with the good of the whole in mind. Thomas Waitt Pleasant, North Carolina Medical Negligence, Nursing Home, and Insurance Lawyer, Toll Free 888.435.7156. Office locations in Raleigh, Wilmington and Fayetteville.