Medical Malpractice Victims and their Families Go to Washington

Yesterday, there was an amazing event in Washington DC with the survivors of medical malpractice - families from nine states, including many who have been catastrophically injured.  They made the trek to our nation’s capital to ask Congress to ensure that the much-needed health care bill does not strip injured patients of their legal rights.

The event, which was sponsored by eight different consumer groups (including the Center for Justice & Democracy) also featured U.S. Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) at a press conference outside the Capital building.  In addition to Braley’s remarks, several of the victims and/or family members (many of whom wore buttons proclaiming, “I am not frivolous”) shared their incredibly moving personal stories (which you can read more about here).  Among those who spoke were Kathy Olsen of California (mother of Steve Olsen, pictured left), Merlyna Adams of Lousiana (pictured up right), and Lisa Gourley of Nebraska (mother of Colin Gourley, pictured down right).

“I hope the entire U.S. Congress [focuses its] attention on preventing these tragedies from happening and protecting the legal rights of Americans,” said Lisa Gourley, whose son Colin was brain-damaged at birth due to medical negligence.

“At a time when people are trying to cap and restrict injured and deceased patients ability to recover full and fair compensation, it is time we get back we get back to talking about the underlying problem,” said Congressman Braley.  “The easiest way to reduce the cost of medical malpractice in this country is to reduce the large number of preventable medical errors.”

Comments

[Robert Oshel]

Congressman Braley has it exactly right! Since the National Practitioner Data Bank began collecting data in 1990, in most states only about two percent of physicians have been responsible for over half of all the money paid out in malpractice payments. And frequently these two percent have multiple payments in their records but no action taken against their licenses or clinical privileges by state licensing boards or hospital peer reviewers. So they can continue to practice and harm additional patients. If you want to reduce costs — and more importantly to reduce malpractice — force the state medical boards to take action to protect patients.

Tort reform simply treats the symptoms and ignores the real problem. The Institute of Medicine says that about 100,000 people a year are killed by malpractice. Yet there are fewer than 20,000 malpractice payments each year for all causes, not just deaths. Clearly the way to save health care costs — and lives and injuries — is to reduce malpractice itself, not just sweep it under the rug by making it difficult or impossible for injured patients to seek damages from those who harmed them. That only transfers the costs from those who cause the injury to those who are injured.