OK people, get out those laptops. (We used to say "get out those #2 pencils" but that was so three years ago.) It’s PopTort Pop Quiz time again! Thanks to the Center for Justice & Democracy's newly-updated briefing book, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: BY THE NUMBERS (yup, it's now 128 pages with nearly 600 footnotes), we have all kinds of new info about what’s going on in the world of medical malpractice. So let's see how many you get right this time!
1. Medical malpractice case filings are what percentage of all new "tort" cases filed in our courts?
a. More than 50%
b. Between 25% and 50%
c. Between 10% and 25%
d. Under 10%
The correct answer is: d. Actually, it’s far less than 10%. According to November 2015 National Center for State Courts report, medical malpractice cases constitute only 3% of tort cases! The researchers further explain, “Although medical malpractice and product liability cases often generate a great deal of attention and criticism, they comprise only five percent of tort caseloads (less than 1% of the total civil caseload).” Speaking of litigation statistics, also note that juries almost never resolve med mal cases - only about 3 to 9 percent of cases end up before juries.
2. Common problems that robots (you heard me) can cause during minimally-invasive surgeries include:
a. Burnt or broken pieces of tools falling into the patient.
b. Electrical sparking of instruments, sometimes killing the patient.
c. Unintended movements, also sometimes causing death.
d. All of the above.Fooled ya. It’s d once again! According to a 2015 study, which examined 10,000 FDA incident reports from 2000 to 2013, “researchers found that robots used in minimally invasive surgery were involved in 144 patient deaths, 1,391 patient injuries and 8,061 device malfunctions. Among the errors reported – burnt or broken pieces of tools falling into the patient (14.7 percent), electrical sparking of instruments (10.5 percent) and robots making unintended movements (8.6 percent) – the last of which resulted in 52 injuries and two deaths.”
3. Speaking of surgeries, what percent surgeries involve medication errors (either immediately before, during or right after a surgical procedure)?
a. 5%
b. Between 10% and 25%
c. Between 30% and 40%
d. 50%OK I know I’m getting horribly predictable here, but again, the answer is d. According to a 2015 Harvard study, “[S]ome sort of mistake or adverse event occurred in every second operation."
4. How often do medical providers voluntarily disclose errors to patients?
a. More than 50% of the time
b. Between 25% and 50%
c. Between 10% and 25%
d. Under 10%Well, it's "d" again. (Actually, I want you all to get an "A".) A 2014 Johns Hopkins study found, “It was common for health care providers to withhold information about medical mistakes. Only 9 percent of patients said the medical facility voluntarily disclosed the harm.”
So that's it for now. But we'll have another Pop Quiz again soon because, well, that's what we do. So study up!
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