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April 15, 2021Preparing for expat life
April 15, 2021Within the United States of America, medical malpractice is actually one of the main causes of deaths that were otherwise preventable. It happens when and where a medical professional does not provide the patient with a level of care that is considered to be the standard for the treatment that is being given. How this is defined is as what a capable medical professional would have done under the exact same circumstances.
It is important to be made aware of some of the facts and statistics surrounding this, so that if it does ever unfortunately happen to you, you are fully prepared and know what to do.
Latest Research
As of 2016, medical malpractice is the 3rd leading cause of death throughout the entire country. This equates to roughly some 195,000 patients that die due to medical errors of some sort or another each and every year.
This is backed up by the fact that as many as 1 in 7 hospital patients experience some sort of medical error or malpractice according to figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The five most common types of medical malpractice experienced include anesthesia / medication (10 percent), obstetrics (10 percent), treatment (18 percent), surgery (23 percent), and diagnosis (33 percent). Diagnostic error involves not correctly diagnosing a condition or illness either in time so that something can be done about it or at all.
The wrong or missed diagnosis, as well as incorrect treatment, can have very serious outcomes for some patients, such as turning blind. If this has happened to you, then you will likely want to file a lawsuit for blindness negligence so that you can receive the financial compensation that you so rightly deserve.
Lawsuits
Because of the large number of deaths and injuries that are being caused by medical malpractice, there are, on average, anywhere between 15,000 and 19,000 lawsuits filed per year in the United States of America.
Although this may seem like a large number, it only actually represents roughly 2 percent of all cases of medical malpractice that happen all across the country. Of those people filing claims for injuries sustained due to a medical mistake, the average age is 42 years.
Of these tens of thousands of lawsuits, 20 percent of them relate to treatments given during the pregnancy process.
In the vast majority of states in America, it can take anywhere between 6 months and 2 years to file a medical malpractice case against a medical professional or a specific institution.
As a result of the claims made against medical professionals, some 30 percent of physicians in the United States of America have paid in the region of $10,000 or more via their insurers. In New York state alone, payouts for medical malpractice regularly top $690 m on an annual basis.
About 80 percent of these caesars relate to the more severe injuries sustained or deaths, in comparison with 20 percent of all medical malpractice cases which related to more minor injuries.
