Massachusetts Medical Malpractice Blog

Stopping Deadly Hospital Acquired Infections
April 8, 2008

When you go the hospital, you hope to get qualified medical treatment and to leave the hospital feeling better. Unfortunately for thousands of Massachusetts residents each year, the trip to the hospital can be complicated by hospital acquired infection, often with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These infections are expensive to treat, life-threatening, and sometimes fatal. The cost in human life and dollars is staggering. Worse, inattention to basic hygiene by hospital staff is often the cause.

Now Massachusetts is starting to do something about these deadly complications. The state Public Health Council voted in February to increase inspections and to publish hospital complication rates from infections. Recognizing that healthcare related infections may be costing up to $473 million per year, the Public Health Council is demanding that hospitals put far greater emphasis on reducing their infection rates. Infection rates from all hospitals will soon be available to the public.

Massachusetts is not the first state to focus on this problem. Roughly a dozen other states have already put in place similar measures to fight this national problem, which may be killing up to 90,000 people per year around the country.

The infections result from a combination of problems. Many bacterial organisms have grown resistant to antibiotics, so fighting these infections is expensive and difficult. Failing to isolate infected individuals, and failure to maintain strict hygiene in the hospital cause the bacteria to be spread with the hospital facilities. Hospital treatments can introduce the bacteria deep in the body through catheters which are placed into blood vessels, and often threaded to organs. The result is often extended hospital stays, further surgery, expensive treatment, and sometimes wrongful death.

Consumers have the right to know about hospital infection rates, and the crackdown on hospital infections is overdue. It is a sad fact that attention to this serious problem has not come earlier; thousands of lives and millions of dollars could have been saved.

If you feel you or a loved one has suffered a preventable hospital acquired infection, and suffered personal injury or wrongful death as a result of the negligence of a medical provider, you should contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney immediately.

Additional Resources

Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Expert Panel, Links to Reports
State to launch crackdown on hospital infection rates, Boston Globe, 2/14/08
Hospital infection may cost $473 million, Boston Globe, 8/9/07
State seeks to reduce hospital acquired infection rates, Boston Globe, 1/11/07
Management of Multidrug-Resistant Organisms in Healthcare Settings, CDC

Just Say "NO THANKS" to "I'm Sorry" Legislation
March 14, 2008

When your doctor makes a mistake, it is only fair to expect to get a truthful explanation about what happened. After all, there is the Patient Bill of Rights under state and federal law. There are professional ethics. And then there is plain old human decency. All of them tell us that our physicians and other medical practitioners should quickly tell you about any mistakes they made, especially if your medical treatment is affected.

Well, we're sorry to tell you that the truth can be an elusive stranger. In our practice we have seen altered and destroyed medical records and more than a handful of lying witnesses. When one of our clients was left on the table during his twelve hour back operation so his surgeon could go cash a check, nobody even told him what the doctor did or that his doctor had his hospital privileges immediately revoked.

Now the doctors and hospitals are proposing legislation that will shield admissions of liability for admission at trial as long as they use the magic words "I'm sorry" when they explain what went wrong. So, for example, if the doctor says to his patient, "I'm sorry I cut off the wrong leg," you could not quote him in court.

There are two pending bills under review at the Legislature which would shield medical admissions from being used at trial.  We oppose this legislation. We encourage doctors and hospitals to recognize their moral obligations to be open and honest with their patients. If there is negligence, that is what insurance is for.

It's Your Medical Record--Get It!
March 11, 2008

If you think you may have suffered a serious personal injury because of doctor error, one of the first things you should do is get a copy of your medical records.  In Massachusetts, you have an absolute right to get a copy of your records.  The only requirement is that you have to sign an authorization which conforms to the requirements of the HIPAA law.  This is a law enacted by Congress to protect the confidentiality of medical records. 

The hospital or physician’s office will have the form that you will sign.  Call or visit the office and ask for the authorization.  If you request the records of an adult family member, that person has to sign the authorization.  A parent can obtain a child’s medical records by signing the authorization as “father/mother and next friend” of the child.  Only the duly appointed representative of the estate of a deceased patient may obtain a copy of that patient’s medical records. 

When you request your records, you should ask for the complete “page-by-page” chart.  Most hospitals will require you to fill out a form which asks which part of the record you want.  Get the entire chart, unless you or your family member has had a lengthy hospital stay.  In that case, the copying charges may be quite expensive.  If you are concerned about the cost of the copies, ask the hospital records person to give you an invoice for the copying cost before you order the chart.

If your doctor or hospital ask you what you want the records for, you do not have to give them a reason.  Remember: you have an absolute right to obtain a copy of your records.  Do not accept no for an answer.   Do not let a physician’s office tell you that you have wait a month or longer to get a copy of your chart.  Any lawyer who handles medical negligence cases will tell you horror stories of medical records that were destroyed, altered or disappeared after a serious unexpected medical error.  Therefore, the sooner you get your records, the better.  Think of the record as a potential crime scene with evidence that will allow you to potentially prove your case.  It is critical that you preserve the evidence as soon as possible. 

One of the important rolls of your lawyer in the early stages of your potential case is to help you navigate through the process of obtaining your records.  Often, the record is the only evidence of the treatment in your case.  It is remarkable how frequently amnesia sets in when a patient is badly injured.  You can expect that other physicians and nurses working with the potential defendant physician will not go out of their way to help you prove your case.  The search for the truth in every medical malpractice case begins and ends with the documentation of care.  The record is the case.  Get it!

What Should You Do If You Have A Medical Malpractice Case?

The lawyers at Breakstone, White & Gluck, PC have decades of years of experience helping medical malpractice victims. If you think you have a medical malpractice case resulting in an injury or wrongful death, it is essential that you contact a qualified malpractice lawyer as soon as possible. Learn more about choosing a medical malpractice attorney.

Visit our Case Reports pages to learn about some of our many victories in medical malpractice cases.  Our Choosing A Lawyer FAQS page will answer many questions you may have about choosing the right lawyer and how your case will be handled.