The U.S. is currently undergoing a drug shortage due to supply issues that affect how pharmacies are preparing and/or dispensing drug products for patients. This generally occurs when prescribers need to use an alternative drug of a similar agent.
In a recent article published on Nurse Journal, it was revealed that nursing negligence medical malpractice lawsuits and settlements are low in comparison to physicians, which many think is due to the positive and personal relationships that nurses have with their patients.
Certain areas of healthcare are more prone to medical malpractice lawsuits than others. This means that nurses that work within the anesthesia, obstetrics, pediatrics, and neonatology units are more at risk of getting sued than their colleagues who don’t work in these areas.
Every year, Medscape conducts its Malpractice Premium Report in the United States of America. The results from 2019 are officially in, and more than 4,300 physicians responded to the survey to give insights regarding how much they pay to protect themselves in the event of a medical malpractice lawsuit and how they feel about those premiums.
According to the report, nearly all physicians (94%) have medical malpractice coverage, and specialists pay significantly more ($21K) than primary care physicians ($12K) in annual malpractice premiums. In terms of specialists, OB/GYN and Women’s Health specialists pay the highest premiums ($46K), and psychiatric specialists pay the lowest premiums ($5K).
In 2013, a 17-year old girl named Faith DeGrand filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Detroit Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Michigan for a botched spinal surgery that left her paralyzed from the neck down.
Only 10-years old at the time, Faith required spinal surgery for her scoliosis. Unfortunately, what she got instead was a surgical error that caused her intense pain and further injury.
When pop artist Andy Warhol was 58-years old, he underwent a routine gallbladder surgery which made him so sick that he passed away prematurely less than 12 hours later.
In 1987, Warhol had this seemingly simple surgery, confident in his surgeon’s reassurances that there was no danger for him to concern himself over. However, it was later revealed after Warhol’s death that gallbladder surgery was, and still is, a major surgical procedure which is not routine, especially if the patient is as sick as Warhol was at the time of his surgery.
