Medical Negligence: the Quiet Epidemic
June 1, 2010
There is a quiet epidemic which exists in this country and most of us are not even aware of it. Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine published its study as to the effects of substandard medical care in this country. It estimated that as many as one hundred thousand persons are killed each year in this country through substandard medical care. It also estimated that in excess of four hundred thousand individuals are permanently injured through substandard medical care each year in this country. No one wants to talk about those statistics because it is extremely disturbing to think that when one of us goes to a doctor or takes a loved one to a doctor or hospital, there is a risk of serious injury or death by reason of the physician or the hospital not being careful enough under the circumstances. More recent estimates have increased the estimated death toll annually in this country from substandard medical care to somewhere close to two hundred thousand individuals.
Marc Humphrey, of the Humphrey Law Firm, P.C., has handled medical negligence cases now for more than twenty-five years. Pursuing medical negligence cases on behalf of clients involves an extensive investigation. That investigation starts with the story of what happened. It continues with obtaining all pertinent medical records so as to see what story is being told by the healthcare professionals who provided the medical care. In addition to those steps, we spend significant time researching medical journal articles and/or medical textbooks which help us understand the accepted standards of medical care which should have been followed in the diagnosis or treatment of the medical condition in question. We then consult expert witnesses. Experts provide us additional information of what should have been done under the circumstances existing at the time the patient sought out care. If all of those resources lead us to the conclusion that there was substandard care, that the substandard care produced injury or death, and that the monetary equivalent of the effects of that substandard care would justify pursuing the claim, then we recommend formal litigation. The investigation of a medical negligence case takes time and is costly. We are allowed to assist our clients in the cost of investigating and pursuing the medical negligence claim under what is called a contingent fee arrangement. Under such an arrangement, we are never compensated for all of the hours of time put into your case unless we are successful in obtaining for you a recovery.
In addition to the fee, which is a percentage of the gross recovery, there are significant monetary expenses associated with pursuing a medical negligence claim. Those expenses are the most significant when it comes to retaining expert witnesses to help explain and teach the jury what should have been done and how that would have altered the patient’s outcome. It is very difficult to find experts who will testify on behalf of patients. The doctors on the other side have no problem finding expert witnesses because they interact with such experts on a day-in and day-out basis. However, physicians who are consistently willing to stand up for injured patients are becoming more and more rare. Oftentimes those physicians who will testify for the patients are criticized within their profession. In addition, some of the professional associations to which those physicians belong threaten such physicians with ethical complaints and disciplinary action for standing up for the patient. When that happens we all are the victims.
Without medical negligence lawsuits, there are very few mechanisms in place to assure that the quality of the care that all of us receive when we go to the doctor or the hospital is consistent with accepted standards of medical care and practice. Those accepted standards of medical care and practice are implemented in order to minimize the risk of injury or death through the medical care we receive. Because of the difficulty in obtaining experts who will testify for patients, it is not unusual to pay significant sums of money to those experts for the time they have put in, in advising us as to where the care fell below accepted standards and the consequence of that substandard care. Through the course of a litigated medical negligence action, it would not be unusual for an expert witness to devote thirty to forty hours of time in reviewing information and advising us. It is also not unusual to pay four to five hundred dollars per hour to an expert, the hourly rate being the monetary equivalent of what that physician would have earned seeing and treating patients. As such, it’s not an uncommon occurrence for an expert to be paid twenty-five to forty thousand dollars in one case for sharing his/her expertise with us and with the jury. Because of those charges, we are careful in our recommendations of whether someone who has contacted us about a medical negligence claim should formally pursue their claim in the civil justice system.
We have heard from juries that there are far too many frivolous claims against doctors. The cost of just investigating a medical negligence claim is an absolute guarantee that lawyers who handle medical negligence claims never want to file a frivolous claim against a doctor. Medical negligence claims are simply too risky and too expensive to ever file such a claim. In our office, we never recommend pursuit of such a claim unless we’re absolutely convinced that the claim is supported by the medical records, the medical literature, and qualified experts who share their opinions with us. Even then, there is still significant risk in pursuing such a claim in our civil justice system. That risk is magnified by the unwillingness of all of us to even open our minds to the possibility that there is a problem with substandard medical care in this country which is causing large numbers of death and large numbers of permanent injury in this country.
